Times Quick Cryptic No 1448 by Corelli

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Tricky enough today from Corelli, with quite a lot of misdirection and unyielding definitions that needed checkers to unravel. Oh, and an impressively interwoven Hamlet theme running throughout – I count a dozen characters directly mentioned and at least 18 clues with a reference to, er, the “world’s most filmed story after Cinderella”. (Thank you Wikipedia for that startling fact.)  If today’s date or puzzle number is pertinent then it escapes me, other than 1448 being roughly the number of lines Hamlet speaks.

The mark of a high-quality themed puzzle is that the theme is a flourish, unobtrusive to the overall solve and requiring no specific knowledge of the subject matter. So it was here (2d and 12d are the only definitions that explicitly cite a character in the play). As for me, the grid looked quite empty after a first read through of the acrosses with only five entered (8,9,10,13,17), and I finished up a bit shy of the 11 minute mark, four minutes longer than Tuesday’s done just beforehand. Excellent stuff, very much enjoyed – many thanks to Corelli!

Across
1 Serious Australians, perhaps, those preparing resting place (12)
GRAVEDIGGERS – GRAVE (serious) DIGGERS (Australians, perhaps – can be NZ as well). I was a bit unsure of the digger bit – it’s a friendly term of address, as in “G’day digger”. Apparently this originally comes from gold digging in the 1851 gold rush, later reinforced by trench digging in WWI. The gravediggers are also two characters in Hamlet.
8 Uncle’s child, agreeable to embrace revenge, finally (5)
NIECE – NICE (agreeable) to embrace E (revengE, finally). Hamlet reference number two: see 2d as well.
9 Artilleryman, losing head, sheltering in NY convent (7)
NUNNERY – gUNNER (artilleryman, “losing head”), sheltering in NY. “Get thee to a nunnery,” says Hamlet to 18d.
10 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern initially tease (3)
RAG – Rosencrantz And Guildenstern “initially”
11 Demented Fortinbras, sending away a likely heir? (5-4)
FIRST-BORN – anagram (demented) of FORTINBRAS, minus/”sending away” A.
13 Fares badly, taking fewer risks (5)
SAFER – anagram (badly) of FARES. I didn’t include this among the 18 references, but it’s arguable.
14 Manage to halt filming around end of Act I (3,2)
CUT IT – CUT (halt filming) around T (“end” of acT) and I (one).
16 Endless poisonous drinks for characters in Hamlet (9)
VILLAGERS – VILe (poisonous, endless = dock the tail) LAGERS (drinks)
17 English copper coin, once (3)
ECU – E(nglish) Cu (copper). Retaining wide currency in crosswordland, the écu was a French silver coin, roughly equivalent to the English crown.
19 Revolutionary awfully vague, meeting Royal Academician (7)
GUEVARA – “Che” for revolutionary is stock crosswordese, so it’s nice to have his surname for a change, here an anagram (awfully) of VAGUE meeting RA (Royal Academician).
21 Good entertainer providing spirit (5)
GHOST – G(ood) HOST (entertainer). Character in Hamlet.
22 Long running drama set to take the Mickey? (3,9)
THE MOUSETRAP – double definition, the first literal, the second whimsical: a set or apparatus to entrap ol’ Mickey Mouse. Also, the name of the play-within-a-play in Hamlet.

Down
1 Turning up in Elsinore, no guarantee he’s doomed (5)
GONER – “Turning up in” the letters of  elsinoRE NO Guarantee.
2 Like Hamlet? Flag venue for play (9)
AVENGEFUL – anagram (for play) of FLAG VENUE
3 Quits, briefly, the night before (3)
EVE – if you are EVEN you are quits, briefly = dock the last letter. Spoiler alert: Hamlet doesn’t sail all the way to England.
4 Disregard Italian gentleman losing head (6)
IGNORE – sIGNORE (Italian gentleman “losing head”)
5 Weapon handles son stuck roughly under king, finally (9)
GUNSTOCKS – an anagram (roughly) of SON STUCK goes under/below G (kinG, finally)
6 Every so often, arouse regret (3)
RUE – every so often, aRoUsE
7 The Swan’s tragic play: starting in Elsinore, it ends there (6)
CYGNET – the “ends” of tragiC plaY: startinG iN elsinorE, iT. The Swan Theatre was built in 1595, about 7 years before Hamlet would have played there.
11 If something is going up, I should be going off (4,5)
FIRE ALARM – cryptic definition: if a fire goes up, the alarm should go off.
12 Punctually, like Barnardo? The honour’s rare (2,3,4)
ON THE HOUR – THE HONOUR’s an anagram (rare) of the answer. Hamlet opens with Barnardo arriving to relieve another soldier of sentry duty. “You come most carefully upon the hour,” says the weary sentry. As in: you’re not exactly late, but you’re not exactly early.
13 Wild herb found around Virginia (6)
SAVAGE – SAGE (herb) found around Va. (Virginia)
15 Poor Jude, concealing a very familiar feeling (4,2)
DEJA VU – anagram (poor) of JUDE conceals A V(ery)
18 Somewhat abrupt, Ophelia, in her mind? (2,3)
UP TOP – is “somewhat” part of abrUPT OPhelia. Up top relates to the mind. And three more Hamlet characters in this and the next two clues, to finish us off. Phew, good effort Corelli!
20 Old letter from envoys to Horatio, first of all (3)
ETH –  Envoys To Horatio, “first of all”. The symbol ð in Old English
21 My Gertrude’s first letter (3)
GEE – is the letter “g”, as in Gertrude’s first letter.

47 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1448 by Corelli”

  1. Slow going for me. Not that it affects the clue, but I can think of only one gravedigger in ‘Hamlet’. And no villagers; a mob can be heard before Laertes’s entry, but Elsinore is not a village. And a niece is not an uncle’s child. Is AVENGEFUL a word? 8:55.
    3. Act 5 scene 1 – the latest Arden comments : “… the first speaker is a gravedigger … the other is often played as a less experienced assistant”. So an apprentice gravedigger I suppose.
      1. Sure enough, there are two, i’faith. The scene with the two of them is often cut; I’ve never seen it. (On the other hand, I have read it, often, and it seems to have made no impression on me.)

        Edited at 2019-09-26 05:51 am (UTC)

        1. I find it really hard to believe that any production of Hamlet would ever cut the scene which contains one of the most well-known (and misquoted) lines in the play – namely : “Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio”
          (Arden 5.1.174)
          1. Sorry; the first part of Scene 1, from the beginning–the entrance of the 2 gravediggers– to the exit of Gravedigger 2, Hamlet & Horatio having just entered ‘afar off’. I’ve never seen that dialog between the 2 gravediggers.
            1. Sorry; I took you strictly when you said “scene” and assumed you meant scene 5.1.
              No doubt you had intended to say “lines”
              1. I’m not sure I had so clear-cut an intention! But it would surely have been better if I had said, say, ‘the first part of scene 1’.
  2. rolytoly,

    An excellent blog for a very unusual QC – you are very much “just to the point”.
    I can’t spot an extraneous or irrelevant syllable

    Thanks

  3. Corelli has been setting for us since QC#13 in March 2014 but this is only his 18th puzzle in all that time. When I saw his name I was immediately on the lookout for a NINA (didn’t have far to look today!) but in fact I have him recorded as serving up only one such previously, the famous ‘D’ puzzle to mark QC#500.

    For all the enjoyment today I found this straightforward and completed it in 7 minutes although I had a slight wobble over GUNSTOCKS.

    1. There was at least one other with a theme – Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – QC 1017.

      I thought today’s was even more clever, and as Roly points out, Corelli has a knack of making an interesting theme run through almost the entire puzzle without smothering it.

      Thanks again setter, and thanks Roly for an illuminating blog.

      1. Thanks for pointing that out, Will. It was QC#1017 in January last year and blogged by you, I see! I’ve now added a note in my QC archive.

        I’m afraid it was completely wasted on me as I knew nothing more than the title, never having read the book or seen the film.

  4. I noticed a hamlet theme, but only in the sense it was mentioned twice.

    17 min, didn’t really enjoy this one, a mix of easy and strange. The cluing felt a little loose such as the swan clue, uncle’s child, fire going up, cut cluing a clue with cut in it.

    Didn’t parse villagers, eve, gunstocks cygnet, on the hour and gee, which is probably a record for me.

    Cod guevara

  5. Excellent puzzle. I was suckered into thinking it was an easy one by a third of the clues that dropped out. Then the brakes were applied by some very clever clues. That raised my time to 3K so back I’m in the SCC but content with that. I’ll now look over the puzzle and blog more carefully to get the most out of both. Thanks to setter and blogger. John M.
  6. This was different but ultimately solvable without all the background information in the excellent blog.
    I have a very sketchy knowledge of Hamlet. I saw the play years ago and remember it as long.I got GRAVEDIGGERS immediately. Then progress was fair -GUNSTOCKS a query but nothing else would fit .ETH unknown but another clearly clued.
    It came down to LOI 16a where I was sure that DANES had to be in the answer. For once I paused properly to parse and spent about two minutes getting VILLAGERS. 15:20 on the clock.
    David

    Edited at 2019-09-26 07:47 am (UTC)

  7. Yay – that rarest of all moments, a Sub-Kevin! It was only by 1 second but it still counts, so this is a Red Letter Day.

    I enjoyed the theme and admired the skill with which Corelli wove it into the puzzle. Darned if I can work out why today was chosen for it, though. If no one gets it I hope Corelli drops by later to explain.

    Lots of anonymice today … or did a regular forget to log in?

    FOI GRAVEDIGGERS, LOI & COD VILLAGERS (cleverly misleading capital H!)

    Thanks Corelli and roly.

    Templar

  8. Isn’t an uncle’s child a cousin- a niece is a sister’s or brother’s child surely!
    2. One can go all round the houses with this one but if an uncle’s niece is a child I’d have thought that served the definition here.
      1. Hasn’t the niece got something to do with Ophelia? She was Hamlet’s uncle’s child, IIRC. I don’t think that’s been mentioned as yet? (just noticed the rather cryptic comment in the blog, passed me by, I’m afraid)

        Edited at 2019-09-26 11:19 am (UTC)

        1. Ophelia as a daughter of Claudius (Hamlet’s uncle) hasn’t been mentioned yet because she is the daughter of Polonius.

          The “List of Roles” for the play includess : “OPHELIA Polonius’ daughter”

  9. I spotted the Hamlet theme early (it was hard to miss) but never having read or seen it the subtleties of the puzzle passed me by and therefore found it a fairly run of the mill offering. It was tricky in places and I finished just over my target time in 15.55.
    Like Kevin I was somewhat surprised to see a cousin defined as a NIECE in 8a.
    Thanks for the blog
  10. ….is a pub in Norwich, which is on my list to visit. I shall try not to get “Bard”. I’ve never seen Hamlet as either play or film, and only read the play as a mock GCE subject in 1962. Luckily I knew all I needed to except for Barnardo, and that was of no consequence.

    I’m another who was puzzled by NIECE, but enjoyed this otherwise. I unsurprisingly missed my target….

    FOI GRAVEDIGGERS
    LOI DEJA VU
    COD FIRE ALARM
    TIME 5:50

  11. Like Plett11 I have never read or seen Hamlet, though I have picked up the gist of what goes on from various sources over the years, not least this blog. Safe to say my knowledge of it has increased significantly as a result of Corelli’s offering today. FOI was gravediggers. Didn’t realise there were any in Hamlet, though that famous scene with Yorick’s skull makes more sense now. Didn’t get niece straight away, but only because my mind stopped with the thought of nephew which didn’t fit. I have no problem with an uncle’s child being a niece. Surely he wouldn’t be an uncle if his accompanying child wasn’t his niece or nephew. Didn’t parse cygnet or the very clever villagers. Hadn’t heard of gunstocks and DNK that Ecu was anything other than the forerunner of the Euro. Anyway, learned a lot today, assuming some of it stays in. LOI 5d, COD 21a, Time 25:40, so I think I’m edging towards promotion to the SCC from the VSCC.
  12. Like flashman, i found this a mix of easy and unsatisfactory clues. 11d for example – not really sure where ‘something’ fits in – this or one would make more sense. It would still be cryptic enough.
    I enjoyed it, though.
    1. I don’t think “one” would work would it?
      The “something” refers to “something” that’s on fire.
      1. I thought it referred to the fire alarm. Not sure I fully appreciated the crypticity of it all!
  14. Nice one Corelli, and well blogged rolytoly. Some of the subtleties were a bit lost on unliterary me so thanks for pointing them out. LOI ON THE HOUR based on the wordplay and wondering what it had to do with a children’s charity. Doh. 5:15.
  15. As an English teacher with a special place in her heart for Hamlet – both the character and the play – I loved this puzzle and am in awe at Corelli’s cleverness in fitting in so many related clues. Of course, having determined that the play was the answer to all things, it took me a while to see 16 across. When I realised it, I experienced a super penny-drop moment. I have tried hard to find references which our blogger might have missed but to no avail!I especially liked 1, 16 and 22 across. I think the down clues were a little less successful e.g. 21 down. It had to be this but, even after reading the – excellent – blog, I can’t quite see why “gee” equates to the definition “my”. Am I being thick? I fear so. Fab. Thanks so much, Rolytoly and Corelli.
    1. I only had one more thought – is 15dn referencing Jude Law’s Hamlet ten years or so ago? (At the Donmar.)

      “Oh GEE” is what you might say instead of “Oh my”, if you were surprised. And if you were a small American child in the 1950s.

      1. Ah, yes! Good thought.

        And thanks so much for the “oh, my” /”oh, gee” explanation. Of course, I can see that now.

    2. ‘My’ as in ‘Oh, my!’ There have been a bunch of these in recent 15x15s, where ‘my’=COR.
    4. I was looking for references too. I confidently spotted Goneril (GONER or perhaps IGNORE+) then I realised my mistake(s).
  16. I am glad most seem to have enjoyed this excursion onto Shakespeare.

    Themed puzzles can be irritating, I realise, if too “in yer face”, and there’s always a danger they can lead to over-difficult puzzles.
    I apologise for the Barnardo reference which alone I think of the themed clues required some knowledge of the play for total sense to be made of it. Also, AVENGEFUL is a bit obscure.

    There was no significance in the date: the editor simply scheduled it as and when he chose.
    I would like to pretend that the H in the middle, which I did notice later, was deliberate, but it is a complete coincidence.

    C.

    2. Please accept a hearty round of applause for a really fun and clever puzzle. Thank you very much for giving us such entertainment and for dropping by.
  17. Well that was a surprise after two years of doing one QC a week on paper, I reckon that was my first sub 2 K finish!
    Loved the misdirection in 16a!

    Happy Potter

  18. Fantastic fun! Started off briskly, but then slowed right down with some of the tougher clues. Was so entranced by the Hamlet theme that I found GUEVARA much tougher than I otherwise would. No COD as such, but I thought this was a thoroughly entertaining and impressively crafted puzzle. Many thanks to Correlli.

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