Guardian Cryptic 27,252 by Picaroon

by

An enjoyable puzzle with some lovely clues and great surfaces…

…and a theme in the across solutions of Shakespearean characters, tied together by 17ac: CONSTANCE and Lord BIGOT from King John; LANCE and VALENTINE from The Two Gentlemen of Verona; the eponymous CYMBELINE; TAURUS and CLEOPATRA from Antony and Cleopatra; Mistress OVERDONE and ELBOW from Measure for Measure; Mistress QUICKLY from Henry IV, Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor, Queen MARGARET from Henry VI and Richard III, BOTTOM from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and BELCH from Twelfth Night. An impressive filling of the grid, though for me many of the names were unfamiliar and looked up after the fact.

I finished in the top left with 1dn last in, also unfamiliar but very gettable with crossers. Favourites were 8ac, 5dn, and 6dn. Thanks, Picaroon.

Across
7 CONSTANCE Lake by Alps with Italian viewpoint (9)
=a lake in Germany [wiki]
CON=”with [in] Italian”; plus STANCE=”viewpoint”
8 LANCE Knight’s piercing spike (5)
N=chess abbreviation for “Knight”, inside/”piercing” LACE=”spike” as in ‘lacing’/’spiking’ drinks with drugs; &lit definition
9 CYMBELINE Ancient chieftain‘s treated nicely, receiving honour (9)
=or Cunobeline, an ancient British king [wiki]
(nicely)*, around MBE=M[ember of the Most Excellent Order of the] B[ritish] E[mpire]=”honour”
10 BIGOT Character lacking tolerance from great books (5)
BIG=”great” plus O[ld] T[estament]=”books” of the Bible
12 TAURUS Back from market with a shaggy ox or bull (6)
[marke]T, plus A, plus URUS=”shaggy ox” [wiki]
13 OVERDONE Extravagant party held by old French writer (8)
DO=”party”, inside O[ld] plus [Jules] VERNE=”French writer”
14 QUICKLY Fast living lady has her heart stolen (7)
QUICK=”living”, plus L[ad]Y
17 THE BARD Creator of across solutions shows amazing breadth (3,4)
(breadth)*
20 MARGARET Monsieur Arthur defends station of French princess (8)
=Princess Margaret, sister to Queen Elizabeth II
M[onsieur], plus ART[hur] around GARE=”station [in] French”
22 BOTTOM Stern and abstemious during prosperous time (6)
=as in the rear of a vessel
T[ee]T[otal]=”abstemious” inside BOOM=”prosperous time”
24 ELBOW Crook from extremely eventful cockney area (5)
E[ventfu]L, plus BOW=”cockney area” in London
25 CLEOPATRA See lion trap a wild butterfly (9)
=[wiki]
C=”See” in text-speak; plus LEO=”lion”, plus (trap a)*
26 BELCH Gas escape from case of butane left by church (5)
B[utan]E plus L[eft] plus CH[urch]
27 VALENTINE Sweetheart conceited European holds fast (9)
VAIN=”conceited”, plus E[uropean]; both around LENT=Christian period of “fast”
Down
1 CORYZA Crazy rocker retires, nursing inflammation (6)
=a nasal inflammation
Hidden reversed inside [Cr]AZY ROC[ker]
2 ISOBARIC Having equal pressure and current, or basic fuses (8)
I=symbol for current in physics; plus (or basic)*
3 TALLIS One’s accompanying unbelievable organist (6)
=English composer and organist [wiki]
I=”One”, so I’S=”One’s”; after TALL [tale]=”unbelievable”
4 MCENROE Chaps eating cold caviar he served professionally (7)
=the tennis player [wiki]
MEN=”Chaps”, around C[old], plus ROE=”caviar”
5 VARIED Very dull clothing earl changed (6)
V[ery] plus ARID=”dull”; both around E[arl]
6 SCHOONER Glass for alcohol preferably filled by taps (8)
SOONER=”preferably” as in ‘I’d sooner do X than Y’; around C[old] and H[ot] “taps”
11 SETH Third child registered in Somerset House (4)
=the third child of Adam and Eve
Hidden in [Somer]SET H[ouse]
15 UNALLIED Completely in nude, one playing solo (8)
ALL=”Completely”, inside (nude I)* where I=”one”
16 LARK The French kings frolic (4)
LA=”The [in] French”, plus R[ex] and K[ing]=”kings”
18 BIT PARTS Most of Brad Pitt’s works offering possibilities for extra? (3,5)
most of the letters from (Brad Pitt’s)*, not including the d
19 STELLAR Amazing appeal by Republican to hold recount (7)
SA=sex appeal, plus R[epublican]; all around TELL=”recount”
21 GROUCH Not finishing Marx? He’s a curmudgeon (6)
GROUCH[o] Marx [wiki]
22 BLOWER Phone bill cuts I’ll bring down (6)
B[ill] cutting the I’ll; plus LOWER=”bring down”
23 OARING Having a row over a wedding gift (6)
O[ver] in cricket abbreviations, plus A, plus RING=”wedding gift”

46 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,252 by Picaroon”

  1. One of the rare occasions where I realised there was a theme (helped by 17a, of course). This only served to highlight how poorly I know my Shakespeare (I had to google LANCE, BIGOT, TAURUS and ELBOW to see which plays they appeared in).

    Thanks, Picaroon and manehi.

  2. In the spirit of 21d, if Shakespeare created Cleopatra then I better spend the rest of the morning refreshing my knowledge of Ancient Egyptian history.

  3. I really relished the Shakespearean characters theme in this puzzle, though not all of them came to mind 14a. I had to dredge the memory banks which took me back to studying English literature in the early 1970s!

    Of the across clues, the child in me still really liked solving 22a BOTTOM. However I also really enjoyed seeing OARING at 23d, even though I am still not even sure that it’s a real word! (It’s certainly not one I think of when I see rowers rowing…)

    Many thanks to Picaroon for the fun and to manehi for your detailed and informative blog, which helped my ageing brain (though according to yesterday’s blog, it is supposedly only 53 years of age!).

    I must say that even though I usually dislike curmudgeonly comments on this forum, I had to laugh out loud at Van Winkle’s@2 today.

  4. I got seduced into entering ‘Timon’ at 10a, thinking that there was a reference in the clue that I hadn’t grasped. I should have thought longer, but it didn’t help that the work in which Lord Bigot appears is one I do not know. The second day in a row that I have muffed one clue. Bother. No complaints though, another top class puzzle from one of my favourite compilers.

  5. Thanks Picaroon and manehi
    I found this very hard and not very enjoyable, as my knowledge of Shakespeare is limited. A failure for me, in fact, as like George Clements @4, I had a partly parsed TIMON at 10a.

  6. We put Percy in at 8AC as we couldn’t think of another character who fitted!
    We thought that the character in TGV was Launce not Lance.
    Otherwise a great puzzle from Picaroon and very inventive.
    Thanks to both him and Manehi

  7. Some great surfaces, esp. 4, 6, 8, 17 and 18.

    It’s a good thing that a lot of THE BARD’s characters are common words or otherwise familiar names. Apparently my knowledge of Shakespeare is roughly on par with my knowledge of the Bible. Adam and Eve had a third child? My knowledge of Monopoly, on the other hand, came in handy for 24.

  8. I looked at the unfriendly grid, and drew a blank with the first few answers, and thought that I was in for a hard time. Then in went THE BARD.

    Not that I knew all the characters – far from it, the likes of TAURUS and BIGOT were acts of faith. But Picaroon is a fair guy, and there’s nothing here ungettable. Bit of a shame really: there were no big hold ups, and I still have another hour on the train.

  10. Thanks Picaroon; nice setting to get all the themed ones in Across solutions.

    I got BELCH and then THE BARD fairly QUICKLY, but it wasn’t much help with a lot of the others, and I got somewhat confused when I then got OVERDONE and BIGOT.

    Thanks manehi for a good blog. I’m glad you did all the name-checks. At least there was CORYZA to add to the GK, although I only spotted the reverse hidden after I had put it in.

  11. I thought this was a gem. 10a was asking to be TIMON but from knowing how precise this man’s clues are it had to be a wind-up.
    A very consistent setter of great quality.

  12. P.S. Some more background …

    With a name like “Mistress Overdone,” it’s no surprise this character runs a brothel outside the city limits of Vienna. When she finds out that all the suburban brothels are being torn down, she’s not happy about it: “Why, here’s a change indeed in the commonwealth! / What shall become of me?”

  13. Thank you Picaroon and manehi.

    Unlike muffin @5 I enjoyed this puzzle even though my knowledge of Shakespeare is limited. I only knew the names of half the characters and did not remember which plays some of them were from, every one of them was clearly clued – my ignorance prevented me from falling into the TIMON trap at 10a.

    The clues for QUICKLY, ELBOW and BELCH were my favourites.

  14. “I enjoyed this puzzle even though my knowledge of Shakespeare is limited” (Cookie @13). The same applies to me.

    I thought this was an excellent crossword, which passed the test of themed crosswords: although the theme (in this case) half-filled the grid it was not necessary to know all, or anything, about it.

    I don’t know King John or Measure for Measure and therefore didn’t recognise the four character names from those plays. Coming to the end I was impatient to move on and left BIGOT unsolved (thinking, like others, it must be TIMON), but that clue was not only fair but also easy, and I should have guessed it correctly.

    I was stuck in the top half for a little while, but getting TAURUS and then TALLIS gave me the breakthrough.

    This is not the friendliest grid, 12 answers having fewer than half of their letters checked, but the quality of the clues fully compensated for that in my view. This was just right for me – not too easy, and a pleasure to solve (almost) to the end.

    Many thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

  15. Like several others I had TIMON, till I clicked “Check all.” We’re probably in good company, since I’ll bet hardly anybody knows King John, much less its minor characters. Come to think of it, there are quite a few minor characters I’d never heard of.

    Shirley @8 — you may be thinking of Launcelot Gobbo in the Merchant of Venice.

    Swatty @7 — is Bow in the London version of Monopoly? Who knew? (I barely know the original Atlantic City version.)

    I loved the frolicking French kings.

  16. Wiki has him as just “LAUNCE”, but this is from a website called schmoop:

    “Character Analysis
    Lance (“Launce” in some editions of the play) is Proteus’s servant. When Proteus is sent to Milan, Lance is forced to go along. He’s reluctant to leave his beloved dog, Crab, behind and somehow manages to take the little guy along with him.”

  17. Actually, Wiki lists him as Launce, but adds this footnote:

    Most modern editors of the play tend to rename this character ‘Lance’, on the basis that ‘Lance’ represents a modernisation of ‘Launce’. See, for example, the editions by Kurt Schlueter (1990), William C. Carroll (2004) and Roger Warren (2008).

  18. Fwiw, Bow Street is in the London version of Monopoly, but that street is in Covent Garden, not Bow.

  19. And the cockney connection is that, to be so-called, one has to be born within the sound of Bow bells – the Covent Garden Bow, not the East End Bow, a fact which disappoints me to this day.

  20. Despite a theme which does not play to my strengths, the down clues caused me more problems than the themed ones, and I had to guess and check a few to finish this in the time I had available. Would have made a good prize puzzle.

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

  21. [Hastily corrects himself] … the sound of St Mary-le-Bow, in the Cheapside area of the City.

  22. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi. I got THE BARD early on and then, as a long-time teacher of Shakespeare’s plays, much enjoyed the other across clues. I needed help parsing TAURUS and BLOWER, and CORYZA was my LOI. Yes, as noted by several above, some of the characters in question are not well known, even to teachers, particularly Taurus, a general with very few lines in A & C (a play with a huge cast list), and King John is not widely known with BIGOT one of a group of three English lords who change sides (English to French to English again), but CONSTANCE (the mother of Prince Arthur) was a sought-after role by actresses in the 19th century because of her passionate speeches (so at least then was not seen as a minor character). Both ELBOW (“I do lean upon Justice”) and Mistress OVERDONE are part of the comic underworld of Measure for Measure. If you are lucky enough to see a good production, you will find it one of the most challenging items in the canon, a true problem play.

  23. Like copmus@11 I thought this was a gem. My knowledge of Shakespeare isn’t that great but everything was solvable – I got THE BARD quite late on. Picaroon’s puzzles get better and better. Many thanks to him and manehi.

  24. Well put together as usual and some great surfaces. My wife particularly liked 8a but I liked them all. LOI was Tallis, of whom we’d never heard. Thanks to everyone.

  28. I got THE BOARD early on but I didn’t twig the theme until QUICKLY went in – and then I saw BOTTOM and BELCH! Not that I found this easy or quick and there were a number of characters which I simply didn’t know- OVERDONE and LANCE. The latter was my FOI and I couldn’t believe it was correct because it didn’t seem even cryptic. My ignorance showing here. I admire this setter’s puzzles but I find them a little too tricksy. I can’t say I really enjoyed this but my natural bloody mindedness made me complete it.
    Thanks Picaroon

  29. Thanks manehi and Picaroon.
    Some may appreciate 11d more if they know Somerset House is where the registry of births, marriages and deaths is located.

  30. Further, 11d reminded me of Imogen’s 27243 with “hatches matches and dispatches” – also blogged by you…

  31. I probably had something of an advantage with CLEOPATRA, because I’m familiar with it – the butterfly, I mean. We see lots of them in and around our French garden – though sadly the species does not occur in Britain. Fairly similar to a Brimstone: the female is in fact quite hard to tell apart – but the male is spectacular, yellow with bright orange flushes on each forewing. Look out for it if you’re down that way in summer…

  32. Thanks for the excellent blog, Manehi.

    Van Winkle @2, fair point, but aren’t we just talking about different Cleopatras? You’re referring to the historical, real one, whereas the clue refers to the fictional one who speaks English and was, I would say, created by the playwright.

  33. Can we have a count of how many regular contributors are French residents, please? I was online with a Francophone English crossword solver recently!

  34. On the day that Jane Austen ruled (OK?), Picaroon visited another part of British literature.
    I have to confess that every time Shakespeare’s at the heart of a crossword my heart sinks.
    Not because I don’t know anything about ‘The Bard’, I’ve seen a couple of plays and enjoyed them.
    It’s more that I have a feeling that all has already been said and done.
    A theme like this may make a lot of solvers’ hearts beat faster, for me it’s a bit like ‘oh no, not again’.

    And now the positive thing.
    This was really a majestic crossword.
    Not so long ago, an Arachne puzzle was considered a masterclass in setting but what about this one?
    Sublime grid construction.
    Our LOI (CORYZA, 1d) is, true, an obscurity caused by the choice of themed entries that cross it.
    In such a case, a good setter writes a clue that leads the solver unambiguously and without clever wordplay to the answer.
    And that is exactly what Picaroon did.
    And that’s one of the reasons he is such a good setter.

    There was some wonderful clueing here with often excellent surfaces.
    In that respect – for us – 4d (McENROE), 6d (SCHOONER), 22d (BLOWER) and 23d (OARING) stood out.

    Clearly, not everyone does agree today but I/we thought this was marvellous!

    Thank you manehi & Picaroon.

  37. The music of TALLIS was probably that which Shakespeare would have heard, if I remember rightly it was the first music officially published, at least in England, the BARD was born about 20 years before TALLIS died.

  38. Sorry, I found this a dull crossword. It simply depended too heavily on an assumed knowledge of / interest in Shakespeare. Picaroon can do much better than this, as evidenced in – McEnroe!!

  39. When I opened the back page of my newspaper and saw a Picaroon puzzle, I sighed with disappointment. Always a struggle. Never enjoyable.

  40. This casts a new light on Chaucer’s Prioress, who spoke the French “of Stratford-att-Bowe, for Frenssh of Parys was to hire unknowe.” I’d always assumed that her Stratford French came from Shakespeare’s Stratford, and all the time she was a Londoner!

  41. Redkev @38 & Simon @39 Solving the themed crossers required not one iota of knowledge which is why it’s so darn fine – joys for those who love, nowt taken from them as can’t. A fair and lovely piece of setting.
    BIT PARTS iced it, for me.

  43. copmus@42 Confess to feeling VERY wary here, but I’ve overcome the mechanics of responding, boviously. Az’s been thrown out of the `club` & cucu’s barred from the bar…
    I adapt – and long for fairness (for both of them) as every solver does.

  44. I solved 8ac as LANCE without having determined that all the across solutions apart from THE BARD are (also) the names of characters in Shakespeare. A lance is a ‘knight’s piercing spike’, no more and no less. All those across clues contain definitions not associated with The Bard’s work.

  45. Valentine @15 – yes, London version, where Bow, Marlborough and Vine Sts are the orange properties. Growing up in the Antipodes, I had no idea which parts of London all these streets and colours represented, Cockney or otherwise. The word ELBOW was a contender for the solution and that’s when Bow Street surfaced in my memory.

    A little knowledge (or word association, in this case) can be a useful thing in these situations.

    Thanks to others for their superior local knowledge.

  46. Despite coming here with 4 solutions missing, the fact that we carried on solving it into a second day before looking at this blog means we thought it was a great puzzle. As many have said smooth surfaces, clear clueing and a theme which wasn’t necessary for the solving but added to the fun. I look forward to seeing Picaroon’s name on a puzzle and thanks to manehi for the blog.

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