i Cryptic Crossword 4126 by Maize
April 27, 2024
Difficulty rating (out of five) ⏳⏳⏳⏳½
Double, double, toil and trouble…
On 25th March 2020 I had been due to open in a production of Macbeth here in Cornwall but just before, on 23rd March, Boris Johnson announced Britain’s first lockdown with immediate effect.
Bother.
Then came acres of furlough time so this crossword became an almost inevitable sort of substitute (as regulars will know, Maize is me). However, we are not in furlough now so my apologies if you didn’t have time or inclination this weekend to grapple with what I think is a pretty fiendish puzzle.
Among the several trickier clues were the lift-&-separate ‘11/th’ in 9a THUNDER, the ‘zany’ style clue (not exactly a straight cryptic) that was 5d INDIGO and the clue to Tom Baker’s Doctor Who assistant LEELA in 7d which will have been unknown to many. In addition the supposed synonym of knot = unite in 25d didn’t quite work I now think; an instance of ‘just because it’s in Chambers doesn’t mean it’s okay’. Then despite my cousin still calling me the name, it seems Nix Olympia is not as well-known as it was in the 70s, so the surface reading of 28a will have made little sense to most.
For CoD I must accept that INDIGO is rather Marmitey, so I’ll go for this one because although Monk has done every 3rd letter a few times, I’ve not seen every 4th before:
8d Every fourth of July Canadians make the same mess as their neighbours (7)
Of course the word ‘Macbeth’, should never be mentioned explicitly – rather like a ghost theme = hence ‘THE SCOTTISH PLAY’ and here’s the link in which I explain all the Shakespeare references in full at comment 21: www.fifteensquared.net/2020/05/12/independent-10477-by-maize
Oh, in case you wondered, we did get to perform in November, so not entirely cursed 😊
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
Denzo
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
My favourite Shakespeare play, and a great puzzle to go with it. There’s even a Who reference (which I got immediately, you won’t be surprised to hear). What’s not to like? Well, nothing as it turns out. I finished this within the one egg-timer, but I wouldn’t say comfortably so, as I solved much on instinct. Perhaps I got lucky, as the first long across went in based on the generous definition and enumeration, and much of the rest then fell into place. I suspect this will be one of the better puzzles published this weekend, and is certainly the best we’ve had in the i in a while.
I remember doing this one, which ought to have helped – but didn’t. Great fun and a great play. What’s not to like? Except for 5dn, the parsing of which I will never understand… Oh, and you were great in the play as well!
Whom did he play?
The title character!
Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain. The initial letters give the mnemonic for the colours of the rainbow. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. Therefore, Richard’s Red, Gave Green, In must be this, Indigo. I hope this helps,it certainly helped me when I googled. Mnemonics don’t work for me as I can never remember either the mnemonic or what it stands for, thereby “doubling the trouble”, if you’ll forgive the pun.
Thanks, Andy. I still hate the clue – as Cornick said, it’s a marmite-y one.
Excellent fare. About ⏳️⏳️⏳️⏳️ here, but at the top end of that. I got the theme very early – perhaps being familiar with the setter’s dramatic calling helped. But one of those great puzzles where challenging = engrossing = very enjoyable and satisfying.
Only one clue had me puzzled, UNTIE, which you mention in the blog, but it was clear from the crossing letters and definition.
I will admit to one error. At 22d I mistook “restored” for the anagram indicator and “ta(t)tered” for the fodder and pencilled in “radette” in the vain hope that it would turn out to be a screen of some sorts… DIAMOND made me rethink.
Double ticks for THE SCOTTISH PLAY, THUNDER, INDIGO and YANKEES. Also loved EXAMS, RIDGE TILES and MURDERER.
LEELA brought back memories, perhaps ones I shouldn’t mention.
Thanks, Maize/ Cornick.
Fiendish is an apt description and, to be honest, I would have enjoyed it more had it been less so, but certainly deserving the lavish praise it received on 225. The surfaces were good and the wordplay excellent, though even now I don’t get INDIGO and didn’t even try to parse my LOI, YANKEES, though I see that now. NHO LEELA but wordplay was a giveaway. NHO the idea that Macbeth was unmentionable and forgot the three weirdos, so the two long clues went in on wordplay alone, giving me no chance to spot the theme, though I appreciate it now. PDMs were HIDEBOUND and RIDGE TILE, and I liked BARONET, spotting the wordplay after entering the answer.
Re 5d, the intended cryptic reading goes something like:
If ‘Richard’ is Red and ‘Gave’ is Green then ‘In’ is this (the answer).
So from the ROYGBIV mnemonic we deduce INDIGO.
Thanks, I see it now. I thought briefly of traffic lights, then wine (eg Portuguese vinho verde) bur I don’t think the rainbow would ever have come to me. Perhaps If it was Victor’s violet blazed blue in this… But thanks for the puzzle which combined the challenge of Phi’s on Thursday with the craft of Eccles’s yesterday. Like Eccles you must have taken time to provide clues which are satisfying to solve.
I am going to see the unmentionble play at my local cinema on Thursday screened live from a new theatre in London Docklands.
The lead is Ralph Fiennes. Lady M, arguably a more interesting character is Indira Varma.
It’s probably on at a cinema near you/
Thank you so much – I will definitely go and see that – excellent casting.
It’s an interesting view that Lady M. might be more interesting. Freud was obsessed with the play towards the end of his life; for him Lady M represented the ego (drive & ambition); the witches the id, and Macbeth himself expressed the superego in his monologues. Yet that voice of the superego is crushed as the play progresses, and therein lies the tragedy.
😊
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Cor, that wasn’t half hard! Or more precisely, it was half hard, as the top went in really quickly, but the bottom took an age, taking it nearly into ⏳⏳⏳⏳⏳ territory. Great stuff all round though, I loved the 4th-letter device at 8d, also RIDGE TILE and UNTIE, which I did manage to parse, unlike INDIGO which I didn’t. Never heard of LEELA.
Thanks Cornick for a terrific puzzle.