The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume I (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (136 page)

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Authors: Arthur Conan Doyle

BOOK: The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume I (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

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Writing paper; so called because its watermark is in the shape of a jester’s cap and bells.

Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908), Spanish violinist and composer.

Traditional sign of a pawnbroker.

The murder and the treasure are references to
The Sign of Four
.

The stranger is referring to a card game, either bridge or whist.

Lantern with a panel for blocking the light.

Party of four; literally, a square party (French).

Slang for “handcuffs.”

“The man is nothing; the work everything” (French).

Gem cut so as to have many facets and thus great brilliance.

Love affair; literally, affair of the heart (French).

Throat inflammation.

There, that’s all (French).

Courts in English counties that met periodically to try pending civil and criminal cases.

Specialty.

Small book of poems by Petrarch (1304-1374), Italian poet known for his sonnets.

The reference is to a series of cheap popular novels with yellow covers.

The reference is to Shakespeare’s
As You Like It
(act 2, scene 7, line 28; New York: Signet Classic, 1998): “And thereby hangs a tale.”

English novelist (1828-1909).

Raincoat.

We shall see (French).

Holmes wrongly attributes this phrase to seventeenth-century English cleric Richar Baxter; it was actually coined by a sixteenth-century clergyman, John Bradford.

William Clark Russell (1844-1911) wrote dozens of such stories.

Baron Georges Léopold Cuvier (1769-1832), French naturalist, founder of comparative anatomy and paleontology.

Division of Scotland Yard assigned to Whitechapel, site of Jack the Ripper’s crimes in 1888, the year after the one in which this story is set.

It appeared in
Confessions of an English Opium Eater
, by Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859).

As Watson’s first name is John and his middle initial H, one wonders why his wife refers to him as James.

Small store that sold ready-made clothes to sailors.

Cloud.

Soft, muslin-like silk (French).

Piece of light hand luggage, named after William Gladstone, prime minister of England four times between 1868 and 1894.

Here, as everywhere else “the City” is capitalized, it refers not to London itself, but the financial district in the East End.

A carbuncle is a garnet, which is usually red; a blue one has never been found.

Felt hat with a low crown, similar to a derby.

Tam-o’-shanter cap, which features a tight-fitting headband, a flat circular crown, and a central pompom.

Scattered limbs (Latin).

Daily, printed on pink paper, that listed odds for sporting events.

Waterloo railway station, the largest in London.

As baboons are native only to Africa and the Arabian peninsula, how this one got to India is anybody’s guess.

Actually a Webley’s No. 2, .320 caliber pistol that used Eley bullets.

Reference to the Bible, Ecclesiastes 10:8, “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him” (KJV).

Highly absorbent sedimentary clay used to remove oil and grease during the fulling process (the shrinking and thickening of woolen cloth).

Customs official who waits for ships to come in on the tide.

Description of the family’s coat of arms.

Name of a dynasty of English kings, from Henry II (ruled 1154-1189) through Richard II (1377-1399). Conan Doyle’s mother, Mary, traced her descent from this family.

Name of the royal family that ruled England from 1485 to 1603, including Henry VII (ruled 1485-1509), Henry VIII (1509-1547), and Elizabeth I (1558-1603).

Those shot by Cupid.

Professional dancer (French); here, a chorus girl.

A small covering worn over a shoe and extending from the ankle to the instep; a spat.

From the
Journal
(1906) of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862).

Conflict between France and Prussia, from 1870 through early 1871.

Several Holmes scholars argue persuasively that this is Prince Albert, the queen’s consort.

Slang for “racetrack.”

Coin worth a quarter penny (that is, a fourthing).

Blackjack; short, thick, lead-loaded club.

Literally, celebrated causes (French); issues arousing great public notice and debate.

The title of Conan Doyle’s autobiographical novel was
The Stark Munro Letters
.

Holding a gun or knife makes a pretty persuasive “metallic argument.”

Standing place (Latin); one’s legal standing in a court case.

Legendary British racehorse whose line continues today.

Walking stick made from the stem of a dwarf palm.

Type of matches, named after the Roman goddess of fire.

Soft smoking tobacco packed into cakes.

Source of the expression “The dog that didn’t bark.”

Large, four-horse coach with seats inside and on top.

A strange comment, since in that story (see p. 461), written before but published after this one, Holmes makes no error.

Soft felt hat with a wide brim.

Built for the Great Exhibition of 1851; it was a landmark for decades until it was destroyed by fire in 1936.

Nervous disorder marked by uncontrollable arm and leg movements.

Failed miserably.

London Post Office abbreviation for “Eastern Central.”

Derogatory way of saying he looked Jewish.

Burglar.

Was it Oxford, Cambridge, or the University of London? Debate will never end.

Justice of the Peace.

Two-year term on a tramp steamer with a top speed of 8 knots an hour.

Swear on the Bible.

Slang for “the money.”

From bottom to top; a main-truck is the top of the mast.

Hard salt beef.

Region of Nepal near the base of the Himalayas.

Victoria Regina, Latin for “Queen Victoria.”

Searched for, sought (French); exquisite, rare; refined.

Younger branch of the family; that is, one that did not inherit the family’s wealth.

Stronghold or dungeon in a castle.

Strong black coffee without milk or cream.

Small lake or pond.

Royalist during the English Civil War (1642-1651).

Alexander Pope’s highly acclaimed translations of Homer’s
Iliad
(1720) and
Odyssey
(1725-1726).

Burglarize two houses.

Reference to Shakespeare’s
Hamlet
(act 2, scene 2, line 208; New York: Signet Classic, 1998): “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.”

September 11, 1709, the date the last great battle of the War of the Spanish Succession was fought in Malplaquet, France.

Seabird whose appearance was thought to be an omen of trouble.

This most famous of all of Holmes’s lines occurs only this once.

See endnote on p. 699.

Term for a regiment of foot soldiers, as opposed to cavalry.

General James George Smith Neill (1810-1857), killed during the Sepoy Mutiny.

Reference to the Bible, II Samuel 11-12, which details David’s crime against Uriah.

March 25; commemorates the Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel’s announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would be the mother of Christ.

Reappearance of a genetic trait after it skips one or more generations.

Military engineer, especially one involved in digging trenches.

Variant of “chivvy”: to chase or harass.

Closed laboratory vessel, often with a long outlet tube, in which substances are distilled or decomposed.

Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.

Lamp that burns alcohol rather than oil.

Maid’s chores.

Cheap woolen cloth.

French Protestant sect of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The oldest British regiment; it helped restore the Monarchy in 1660.

Home to the prime minister (No. 10) and the chancellor of the Exchequer (No. 11).

Native American, as opposed to a resident of India.

Old sporting term meaning to knock or bring down.

Reference to Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(act 5, scene 1, lines 15-17; New York: Signet Classic, 1998): “the poet’s pen / . . . gives to airy nothing / A local habitation and a name.”

Literally, masterstroke (French); stroke of genius.

Dining car (French).

Tuberculosis.

A paraphrase of Plato’s final salute to Socrates in the
Phaedo
.

Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons.

Having a skull longer than it is wide.

September 29 church festival in honor of the Archangel Michael.

Difficulty in breathing.

Two-wheeled, one-horse carriage.

One who shoes horses, or who treats them medically.

Committee that administers the affairs of that parish only.

Fencing term indicating a hit. Holmes alludes to
Hamlet
, act 5, scene 2, line 282; Signet.

Gentleman or dandy.

Gold coin worth half an English pound.

Short-legged, stocky workhorses.

One who grazes cattle.

Moths and butterflies.

Reference to Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(act 1, scene 1, line 134; Signet): “The course of true love never did run smooth.”

In other words, consideration for her kept me from boxing his ears.

Tough luck.

Card game for two people; similar to euchre.

Line of activity, especially a questionable one.

Person who distributes alms for a great house.

Small metal cup or saucepan.

The phrase meant to woo a prospective spouse—not the physical intimacy it connotes today.

Rephrasing of the Bible, Matthew 6:34, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (KJV).

Uncommunicative; holding cards close to the vest.

1836 opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864), German composer who achieved his greatest success with operas written in French.

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