Spectator 2741: Unsurpassable by Madrigal

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