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Finished now, thanks to help from the above posts. However I still think I may be missing something. Is there something clever in the positioning in the grid of the nine-letter thematic items? If this is not the case it seems to me that it could refer to an Abba song rather than the title of the puzzle?
I've spent a lot of time grid staring so any indication would be most welcome.

(again Mrs Seal sends her thanks to Malone and others who keep me quiet on a Saturday when we have enough herring on the sandbank)

Yes, positioning is significant. Google the Unicode in the previous post…

I've managed to finish this one but am still very frustrated by a clue from last week. Is it valid to ask for a hint here as the 4680 thread seems to have wrapped up? Set text charms?

Four letter word for goggle box, followed by three letter abbreviation for something you send on a phone. Charms is the definition

At last! For this relief, much thanks, Quisling.

Williamseal, the nine-letter thematic items are placed directly below five entries that are thematically related to the quotation reference in the title.

I do not know what hotelwhiskey7 is getting at. The items are not in the shape given by his unicode. One might draw that shape by tracing a path through an alternating sequence of the last and first letters of those five entries, on top of the shape given by the nine-letter items, but there is nothing in the puzzle or the quotation to suggest one should. It seems a completely fanciful idea to me.

I think what HW is alluding to is a point made by Jif73 earlier. If you draw a curved line around the outside of the highlighted cells, you get (sort of) a symbol used to represent the third (in KJV) word of the text. Yes it's fanciful and I'm not entirely convinced myself, but it is a possible interpretation of "the X of Y".

Hi all, in good faith.

Yes, exactly that.

The widespread misquotation is that M is the R of A E.

The correct verse is that L of M is the R of A E; if this Listener has done nothing else, it's reinforced that point.

So I think that the full verse [as per the title] is fulfilled by: the symbol [as in I [symbol] NY], [made of] [thematic nine-letter words for coins, reinforced by the word spelled by the five blocked cells] is the [synonym for base] of all [five synonyms for nastiness] which appear above them.

OK, not a hill to die on, but I'm fairly sure the placement of the coins is non-arbitrary. We can just wait three weeks rather than argue about it in any case!

Trust all well with everyone -

hw7

Thanks all - good enough for me! an enjoyable romp.

Despite all the hints above I still can't see the final step. I can see the five synonyms and that they are similarly placed above the barred-off cells. Presumably the five thematic items in the 9 cells are not actual words? In column 7 the synonym seems to take up almost the whole column, so where does the thematic item go? I expect the answer will be obvious when I understand it but I am baffled at the moment!