Conundrum: 1-D Shakespeare Crossword
Most crossword puzzles are two-dimensional. They have across and down clues.
This puzzle is one-dimensional. It has forward and backward clues. And all of the answers have to do with Shakespeare.
There’s not much space here, but imagine a horizontal row of 39 squares.
There are no black squares. All answers should be run together one after another with no spaces.
Post whatever you come up with. Feel free to use the comments section of this post to collaborate. The final answer will be a string of 39 letters that can be read in both directions.
Enjoy!
Forward (Left to Right)
1 – 8: Hamlet’s home
9 – 12: Briefly betrothed to Edward IV
13 – 16: The smallest fairy?
17 – 20: “A Lover’s Complaint”
21 – 26: Speaker of “If music be the food of love, play on”
27 – 32: Does Macbeth see one before him?
33 – 39: Twelfth Night‘s Antonio once wore one (2 words)
Backward (Right to Left)
39 – 38: Scotland setting in Macbeth-like film
37 – 32: He is as constant as the northern star
31 – 29: Lear’s Fool will give you two crowns for one of these
28 – 23: The love of Venus
22 – 18: He loved Rosaline first
17 – 14: Companion to Hal and Falstaff at the Boar’s Head
13 – 11: What a piece of work it is!
10 – 5: He knows a bank where the wild thyme blows
4 – 1: Tempest setting
UPDATE: See comments for a big hint by Duane.
UPDATE II: Puzzle solved by Neel Mehta. See comments for answer.
May 15th, 2007 at 10:49 am
E.S.N.R.B.N.M.T.P.E.O.S.N.D.G.E.A.E.C.P
I got all the answers but I don’t want to spoil it for the next guy :).
And if I get in trouble at work, I’m blaming you, feeding my addictions. Shame on you.
:)
Duane
http://www.shakespearegeek.com
May 16th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Duane, your answers look good. I guess it takes a Shakespeare Geek…
Can anyone fill in the blanks?
May 17th, 2007 at 10:31 am
omg, are you serious with this? LOL
May 18th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Actually, it’s not that difficult, if you know your Shakespeare backwards and forwards.
June 1st, 2007 at 10:20 am
[…] I recently found a good example of this kind of puzzle on a site dedicated to Shakespeare (and so, it has a Shakespeare theme.) There’s also a puzzle of this kind on Trip Payne’s site. There, it’s called Spiral #1. It’s laid out in the form of a spiral, but the puzzle is the same concept. Tags: crossword puzzles Posted by Josh in Types/Variations (Friday June 1, 2007 at 10:20 am) […]
June 3rd, 2007 at 7:16 am
Welcome puzzle fans!
Visitors from puzzlinks.com might also enjoy the weekly Conundrum, which often features a new (as far as I know) genre of puzzle called a Venn Diagram puzzle.
You also might enjoy the Thursday Morning Riddle, another weekly feature on the blog.
Thanks for visiting. But with all these puzzle fans visiting, can nobody but the Shakespeare Geek solve this puzzle?
February 7th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
[…] if you’re looking for some Shakespeare-spelled-backwards fun, check out this still-unsolved puzzle from the archives. And feel free to solve […]
February 6th, 2017 at 11:19 pm
[…] http://www.shakespeareteacher.com/blog/archives/204 Shakespeare Teacher’s got a Shakespeare crossword up, with a twist. Well, in this case without any actual twists (or crosses?), as it is a “one dimensional” puzzle. You may have seen these before. The clues are given “left to right” and then “right to left”, so whatever you put in as the answers for one side has to match the answers going in the opposite direction. Try it out! […]
September 14th, 2019 at 6:32 pm
I thought this was solved years ago. (For the record, Shakespeare Geek’s blog is still active.)
The answers are
ELSINORE/BONA/MOTE/POEM/ORSINO/DAGGER/ASEACAP
PA/CAESAR/EGG/ADONIS/ROMEO/PETO/MAN/OBERON/ISLE
September 14th, 2019 at 11:36 pm
Absolutely correct. Way to go, Neel Mehta!
After 12 years, I can finally take this puzzle out of the Active category.