4087 Double Shuffling and Dealing by Auctor

Auctor presented us with another of his beautifully constructed puzzles. The letters omitted from wordplay gave us part of a quotation from Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor.

“Boys of art, I have deceived you both; I have directed you to...” As confirmed by the letters in cells marked A this was spoken by the HOST of the GARTER. The next two words were “wrong places”, which had to be entered in the space below the grid. This was the theme. In 9 clues the definition belonged to another clue and in 9 more the definition was misplaced in the clue. In the explanation of clues the misplaced definitions are underlined. The letters in cells marked B could form the words “WHOM THE GODS LOVE”, which is a quotation from the Greek playwright MENANDER, fittingly from his play Dis Exapaton, which means DOUBLE DECEIVER! The name Menander was highlighted diagonally in the grid.

Omitted letters in wordplay are shown in [].

Across
1 Fetching up special seat ahead of new government (7)
SPEW[I]NG S + PEW + N + G (government)
7 Drink close together (6)
S[H]ERRY 2 definitions
12 Clearly composed with irregular phraseology, noun is tacked on (9)
CARLYLE[A]N Anagram CLEARLY + N (noun)
13 Someone playing with female attendant in old Jakarta (7)
BATA[V]IA BAT + AIA
14 Charlie in named term for his moles (6)
[E]DICTS [FIATS 11d] C (Charlie) in DIT + (hi)S
15 Rule out, say JFK, initially then Maine (5)
[D]ROME RO (rule out) + ME (Maine)
16 Finding lex., after very first bit of research (7)
V[E]RDICT V (very) + R(esearch) + DICT. (abbreviation as lex (lexicon))
20 A group on the wing take in that man (5)
[C]HIRM R (take) in HIM
21 Do enter large oil plant with me (8, two words)
NEEM TRE[E] Anagram ENTER + ME
23 Concealed pasture complete in Highlands after time (8)
TALP[I]DAE [MOLES 14] T (time) + ALP + DAE
24 Administrative trainee that is returning politician (5)
E[V]ITA AT + IE reversed
29 Copied old bachelor over liquor (7)
OBOVAT[E] [PEAR-SHAPED 27d] O (old) + B (bachelor) + O (over) + VAT
31 A surgeon before Russians' retreat (5)
[D]ACHA A CH (surgeon) + A (before)
32 Just about persuade smuggler to put back Ecstasy (6)
CO[Y]OTE CO(n) + TO (reversed) + E
33 Scots refuse entertaining joke. This'll make gasbag gape (7)
RONE[O]ED [COPIED 29] ONE (joke) in RED
34 Place for haughty aristo judge, first in karaoke in modern négligé (9)
J[U]NKERDOM Anagram MODERN containing J (judge)  & K(araoke)
35 Promotes the generation of pens? (6)
[B]REEDS 2 definitions
36 One local Victorian greeting if accepted is left unconscionable (7)
UNG[O]DLY UN + G’DAY (that’s Victoria, Australia) changing A to L
 
Down
1 Boat secretly takes away northbound missile (8)
SUBDUC[T]S SUB + SCUD (missile) reversed
2 Loop over old grassy place, the scene of destruction? (12, two words)
PEARL [H]ARBOUR PEARL (loop) + ARBOUR
3 Atlantic resort is in France, in other words west of Limoges (7)
ESTOR[I]L EST (is in French) + OR + L(imoges)
4 Crashes into women when touring Malta (5)
W[H]AMS W (women) + M (Malta) in AS (when)
5 In Paris end up too trusting (4)
N[A]IF FIN reversed
6 Gross accent on one from Perth (5)
GRA[V]E GR (gross) + AE
7 Just one with the blarney turned up otherwise doffing cap first (8)
SLEEV[E]EN ELS(e) reversed + EVEN
8 Unfinished matter involving capital concoction (8)
HY[D]ROMEL ROME in HYL(e)
9 Cut off - dele, in another fashion (5)
EL[I]DE Anagram DELE
10 Playwright's to augment narrative book for the most part with sex (5)
[R]ECIT EC(h) + IT (sex)
11 Fiats streak over it - wide slope (12)
RATCH[E]T-WHEEL [COG 22d] T (it) in RACHE + W (wide) + HEEL (slope)
17 Musical giant (goddess of all rash actions) deserted cause (8)
EMI[C]ATED [SPARKLED 26] EMI + ATE (goddess) + D (deserted)
18 We would have dictated cast inside tormentor finally (8)
INDI[T]ERS Anagram INSIDE + (tormento)R
19 Where to find char caught one day after another in river (8, two words)
T[E]A CADDY C (caught) + DD (day twice) in TAY
22 Stretch of broken water on Cape before archaic cog (7)
RIPCOR[D] [This’ll make gasbag gape 33] RIP + C (cape) + OR (before)
25 Seize embattled river (5)
BO[Y]NE 2 definitions (ref. Battle of the Boyne)
26 English version Kirkpatrick wrote ultimately sparkled (5)
EV[O]KE [CAUSE 17] E + V (version) + K + (wrot)E
27 Pear-shaped? Adult figure dropped from there! (5)
PERD[U] [CONCEALED 23] Anagram PEAR-SHAPED less A (adult) and SHAPE (figure)
28 Turning channel over exercises chap in Texas (5)
[T]AE-BO EA reversed + BO
30 Rest at midday, finishing Sauvignon (4)
N[O]ON last letters of SauvigNON