Puzzle 41: Letter for Letter
It’s Shakespeare time again! Rochester Community Players’ production of The Merry Wives of Windsor opened last Thursday, and when RCP does Shakespeare, I make a puzzle for it. This one is pretty straight-forward, but the connection between the theme and the play won’t be apparent unless you’re at least a bit familiar with the play – which, let’s face it, even most Shakespeare fans aren’t. Merry Wives isn’t staged that often because it’s not a great play – but this production is great, and anyone in the Rochester area should come by and see it. The show runs until Saturday, July 29, with shows every night except Monday and Tuesday.
Thanks to Matt Gritzmacher, Diane Mezzanotte, BeerandCrosswords, and Stella Zawistowski for test-solving.
Notes (including spoilers)
The Merry Wives of Windsor starts with Falstaff deciding to seduce Mistress Ford and Mistress Page by sending them identical love letters. Of course the two women compare the letters and figure it out immediately:
MISTRESS FORD (after showing her letter to Mistress Page) : Did you ever hear the like?
The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II, Scene 1
MISTRESS PAGE: Letter for letter; but that the name of Page and Ford differs!
- 25-A: Admit it; you found yourself saying “You’re damn right” after entering this answer.
- 6-D: This quote comes from Rudd’s appearance on Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis. The whole interview is hilarious (and only five minutes long).
- 30-D: Willie Randolph also played baseball before he was a manager, but that was mostly with the Yankees and obviously I’m not going to put that in the clue.
- 53-D: A lot of the worst stories about Nero were probably spread by his successors looking to discredit him. On the other hand, the bare minimum standard for an emperor is “don’t get overthrown”, and he clearly failed at that.