This week’s puzzle called itself UnsurpassableI hadn’t come across Madrigal before, but I am relatively new to Spectator crosswords. It was a quick and pleasant solve.
The rubric said: the unclued lights (four of three words) provide a literary quotation, its speaker and its author. The quotation turned out to be a famous one, the final words of Sydney Carton, the dissolute lawyer and antihero about to be guillotined in the place of Charles Darnay, the charismatic hero whom he closely resembles in Charles Dickens’s 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities. The quotation is: IT IS A (5d) FAR (18a) FAR BETTER THING (1d) THAT I DO (6a) THAN I HAVE (20d) EVER (15a) DONE (27a). I always thought that there was a “now” in the sentence, as it scanned better, but it appears I was remembering wrongly. In addition there is the speaker, CARTON at 14d and the author DICKENS at 35a.
The title Unsurpassed clearly paraphrases the “far, far better thing” in Sydney Carton’s life.
Across
1 Animal pit (5)
FOSSA
Double definition: a pit or depression and a Madagascan animal
11 Between sensitive areas at home, American’s escape decision on reflection (10)
INTERRAMAL
IN TERRA (at home) + MAL – reversal (on reflection) of LAM (American for escape as in “on the lam”). Definition means between the branches (rami) of the lower jaw
13 Softening rough green lint (9)
RELENTING
Anagram (rough) of GREEN LINT
16 Girl’s native in America (7)
NATALIA
NATAL (native) + I (in) + A (America)
17 Strauss’ operatic lead unusually receiving money for kiss (7)
ELEKTRA
EXTRA (unusually) with LEK (money in Albania) instead of X (kiss)
19 Perhaps someone of ‘negotiable virtue’ found pros supplanting cons (10)
PROSTITUTE
CONSTITUTE (found, in the verbal sense) with PROS instead of CONS
21 Cornered bird in clutches of Irish deputy (5)
TREED
REE – the female of ruff – see 30a – inside TD (teachta dala – a Deputy in the Dail)
24 State expressions of pain and grief (4)
OHIO
OH and IO, according to Chambers, are both expressions of pain or grief
28 Banker’s maxim (5)
GNOME
Double definition: gnome can represent a banker (as in Gnomes of Zurich) or a pithy saying expressing a precept
30 Put through the mill perhaps, Pope recited Galatians’ introduction outside (5-5)
ROUGH-GRIND
ROUGH – homonym of ruff, a bird for which pope is an alternative name + G (first letter – introduction – of Galatians + RIND (outside)
33 Windbag occasionally presents royal occupant of Castle Adamant? (3)
IDA
Alternate letters of wInDbAg – Princess Ida, or Castle Adamant (where she lives) is an opera by Gilbert and Sullivan
36 Scottish screen captivates one lazy rascal (7)
HALLIAN
HALLAN – a Scottish word for a screen between the door and the fireplace – around (captivates) I (one). A hallian, or hallion is a lazy rascal
37 Island cannibal ingests stuffing (4)
BALI
Hidden (stuffing) in canniBAL Ingests
38 He directs one number for girl at end of dance (9)
TARANTINO
I NO (one + number) replacing (for) ELLA (girl) in the end of TARANTELLA. Quentin Tarantino is the director of (among many others) Pulp Fiction
39 Naming the subject? Nothing in Vietnam is surprising (10)
NOMINATIVE
Anagram (is surprising) of O (nothing) + IN VIETNAM
40 Develop Georgia in two different ways? (7)
GESTATE
The ISO code for Georgia, the country, is GE and Georgia is also a STATE
41 Reportedly pound mixtures (5)
BREWS
Homonym (reportedly) of BRUISE (pound)
Down
2 Plated, peeled food dropped off by Deliveroo’s cooked (8)
SILVERED
Anagram (cooked) of DELIVERS – OO (food, with no outside = peeled) removed from Deliveroo’s. Definition as in silver-plated. I tried to make salvered fit but the anagram is clear.
3 Makes glossy sauce initially with vegetables (6)
SLEEKS
S (sauce originally) + LEEKS (vegetables)
4 Digging in, Milan team excel down under (9)
INTERRING
INTER (as in Inter Milan) + RING (excel in Australia – down under)
6 Could a poet create any sonnet? (8)
TENNYSON
The question is: could A TENNYSON (poet) be an anagram of ANY SONNET
7 China’s charitable covers (5)
ARITA
Hidden in chARITAble. Arita is a kind of porcelain manufactured in Arita, near Nagasaki
8 Circuit in Monza offered Lewis abundant pole positions (5)
IMOLA
First letters (pole positions) of In Monza Offered Lewis Abundant. Imola and Monza are the two Formula One circuits in Italy
9 Long-term paybacks from a speeding loon’s crash (3,3,8)
OLD AGE PENSIONS
Anagram (crash) of A SPEEDING LOON’S
10 Chap ditches first love for initial excitement – this could be touchy (6)
FEELER
FELLER (chap) with first L (love) replaced (ditches … for) by E – initial (of) excitement
12 Bristly appendage seen primarily in 7 (6)
ARISTA
S (SEEN primarily) in ARITA (solution to 7). An arista is a bristly appendage to some insects’ antennae
22 On occasions, seadog will ‘Aye’ nervously (6)
EDGILY
Alternate letters (on occasions) of sEaDoG wIlL aYe
23 A tenor unruffled about Miltonic song (8)
SERENATE
SERENE (unruffled) around (about) A T (a tenor). Definition: song as in Paradise Lost Book IV
25 Perhaps Beethoven’s dedicatee follows star briefly to write a story (8)
NOVELISE
ELISE (as in Fur Elise) after (follows) NOV – shortened version (briefly) of NOVA (star)
26 In depot a moped held back hybrid (6)
POMATO
Reversed (held back) portion of in a depOT A MOPed, Definition: a plant that can grow both tomatoes and potatoes
29 Cerebral coverage from measure employed by old disreputable woman (6)
MENINX
EN (measure) inside (employed by) MINX (old disreputable woman). Definition: singular of meninges – membranes that cover the brain and spine
31 Bladed one breaks streak (6)
SKATER
Anagram (breaks) of STREAK
32 Abruptly closes opening, wins every trick (5)
SLAMS
Double definition: firat as in slams door, second as in cards wins everything
34 Help up North American woman (5)
DIANA
DIA (aid – help, reversed – up) + N A = North American
35 Grass caught old piece of Persian shrapnel (5)
DARIC
DARI – another word for DURRA, a grass related to sugarcane, grown in Asia and Africa for grain + C (caught). Definition: an ancient coin (shrapnel) of Persia, named after King Darius