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I've really struggled with the parsing of some of this week's clues and would be grateful if someone could put me out of my misery.

18d "One turned to horse by a dramatist, she to something smaller" (7). It looks like ARACHNE which satisfies "she (turned) to something smaller" but I haven't a clue as to the relevance of the horse or dramatist.

24a "Resident often on the wing (spell initiated by judge)?" (8) Well JAILBIRD fits - someone who may reside in a "wing" and whose term is initiated by a judge but is there more to it? The fact that it starts with a "J" suggests there may be!

26a "Take complaint from mostly despicable character" (3). It's C*R so it must be CUR which will be our despicable character. I cannot see how to arrive at it though.

18d a racine ...dramatist with the i changed to h

cur(e) ..take away the complaint

Thanks Bunty.

I must confess that I'd never heard of Racine.

"Cure" was one of those groan moments! I was looking for a word which contained some kind of complaint which, when removed, would leave "cur". Ah well.

I take it that there was nothing more to the "jailbird" clue than I'd already identified.