Speccie 2350

[Farrwest]

Can someone please give me a general hint on this one. I know the three artists and have filled in all the highlighted squares but cannot see the connection between them. 21d (L?COLED?S) for example makes no sense at all. HELP!

[shaneystar2]

Reading down the shaded squares gives
Corneille
Moliere
Racine
All French dramatists.
The unclued are works by the above.All answers on Wikipedia.
eg works by Corneille are
Le Cid
Horace
Cinna

[Farrwest]

Thanks (again) Shaneystar2 . It's 8.45 pm here in Canada so must be well after midnight in the UK where I assume you live. Are you a night owl or have I mis-located you?

[shaneystar2]

I'm still up Farrwest. It's 00.57 am here in merry old England.
I can be a bit of night owl after nodding off on the sofa while watching TV,then I'm wide awake.
Glad I could be of help . Good luck .

[shaneystar2]

Oh, and P.S
21D is
L'Ecoles des Femmes (Femmes) is at 39A
That's by Moliere.

[MalcVo]

I have been a fan of Doc for some time but I believe he has surpassed himself with the ingenuity of this theme and the way he has composed the grid. Very satisfying.

[vetuste_ennemi]

I enjoyed the puzzle because I owe my sobriquet to Corneille's Le Cid.

A quote had appeared in a bit of reportage in Le Monde about the foundering of the clapped oil tanker Erika off the Brittany coast in 1999. The title of the piece was taken from Le Cid: "O vieillesse ennemie!" of which vetuste ennemi is a misremembered, as well as ungrammatical version.