At the time I grumbled that solving this puzzle required specialist knowledge ie musical notation. I now see that this part of the preamble turned out to be irrelevant so I guess my grumble was unjustified but anyhow I still hate all puzzles which reference musical notes!
39ac - Chambers gives sot = 'a fool (obs)', ie it is an old word for a Charlie, one definition of which in C is 'a fool'. 28dn - In Henry IV Pt2 Pistol says 'I kiss thy neaffe', where neaffe = 'fist'; 'duke' is of course slang for a fist. Chambers lists neaffe as a Shakespearean spelling of nieve, a fist. In a barred puzzle, anything that appears in Chambers is fair...
39ac - Chambers gives sot = 'a fool (obs)', ie it is an old word for a Charlie, one definition of which in C is 'a fool'.
28dn - In Henry IV Pt2 Pistol says 'I kiss thy neaffe', where neaffe = 'fist'; 'duke' is of course slang for a fist. Chambers lists neaffe as a Shakespearean spelling of nieve, a fist.
In a barred puzzle, anything that appears in Chambers is fair game.
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