Solution: Tragedies
Answer: HEMLOCK
Written by The Enigmatologists
Each epitaph describes a character from a Shakespearean tragedy. The first step is to identify the characters, along with the Act and Scene numbers in which they die. From left to right, top to bottom, the characters are:
| Character | Act | Scene | Play |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ophelia | Act 4 | Scene 7 | Hamlet |
| Enobarbus | Act 4 | Scene 9 | Antony and Cleopatra |
| Cinna | Act 3 | Scene 3 | Julius Caesar |
| Polonius | Act 3 | Scene 4 | Hamlet |
| Portia | Act 4 | Scene 3 | Julius Caesar |
| Duncan | Act 2 | Scene 2 | Macbeth |
| Coriolanus | Act 5 | Scene 6 | Coriolanus |
| Lady Macbeth | Act 5 | Scene 5 | Macbeth |
| Young Siward | Act 5 | Scene 7 | Macbeth |
| Mercutio | Act 3 | Scene 1 | Romeo and Juliet |
| Othello | Act 5 | Scene 2 | Othello |
| Juliet | Act 5 | Scene 3 | Romeo and Juliet |
The next step is to place the character names into the grid. To disambiguate, each name passes through the cell which has the Act and Scene numbers as coordinates. (The bottom-left cell is Act 1 Scene 1)
To extract, letters are pulled from the grid in the order of the headstones, again using the Act and Scene numbers as coordinates. The top row of headstones gives POISON and the bottom row of headstones gives CARROT, which Google tells us is HEMLOCK, the puzzle's answer.
Authors' Notes
Hemlock is one of the ingredients that the witches of Macbeth add to their potion. Although THAPSIA VILLOSA is known as “deadly carrot”, it didn’t fit as nicely with the Shakespearean theme of this puzzle.
Sadly, the black squares in the grid served no useful purpose. Many hours were spent trying to create a grid where all names fit perfectly without any extra spaces but we just couldn’t make it work. We tried grids of different sizes, and lots of different combinations of names. In particular, there were a lot of character choices for column 5. Shakespeare’s final acts were often deadly ones.