The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse (The Assassination of Sherlock Holmes Book 1)
Page 17
[94] Latin for ‘in blazing offense.’
[95] A clear reference to Charles Augustus Milverton, once the ‘worst man in London.’
[96] The exact origin of this phrase is unknown. It may be a variant of a Latin proverb: ‘extremis malis extrema remedia’ (extreme remedies for extreme ills). There are hints of it in Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2 (‘Diseases desperate grown, by desperate alliances are relieved, Or not at all’), and Guy Fawkes is alleged to have said to King James I on 6 November 1605 (after his capture): ‘Desperate diseases require desperate measures.’
[97] Holmes here is quoting from Protagoras (c.490–420 BCE), a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and a prominent sophist. Protagoras created a major controversy during ancient times through his statement that, ‘Man is the measure of all things,’ meaning that there is no absolute truth, only that which individuals deem to be the truth.
[98] Holmes was once attacked outside the Café Royal on Regent Street (The Adventure of the Illustrious Client).
[99] More properly named The Northumberland Arms, this hotel was also used by Mr. Francis Hay Moulton (The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor) and by Sir Henry Baskerville. Today it houses the Sherlock Holmes pub.
[100] This phrase is quite old, going back perhaps as far as the Middle Ages. It was also uttered by Arthur Pinner to Hall Pycroft (The Stock-Broker’s Clerk).
[101] A quote by George Villers, the Second Duke of Buckingham (1628-1687), from his play, ‘The Rehearsal.’
[102] British Museum was a station on the London Underground served by the Central line and which opened 1900. In 1933, with the expansion of Holborn station, less than 100 yards away, the British Museum station was permanently closed. It was subsequently utilized as a military office and command post, but in 1989 the surface building was demolished and the remainder of the station is wholly disused.
[103] Holmes never explains how precisely he made this deduction.
[104] Watson vacillates on how many times exactly. As of A Case of Identity, it was only once, but in The Five Orange Pips, Holmes says he had been beaten four times, and in The Problem of Thor Bridge, Watson reports other examples of Holmes’ ‘complete failures.’
[105] Presumably the cabby means Trafalgar Square, which lies on the most direct route from the British Museum to Northumberland Avenue. What ‘protest’ is occurring is never explained, but this was an era of the radical Suffragettes, so that seems a likely hypothesis.
[106] Twenty-one meters to be exact, which is almost seventy feet. It also weighs about two and a quarter tons.
[107] This obelisk was originally erected in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis on the orders of Thutmose III, c.1450 BCE. The inscriptions were added about two hundred years later by Ramesses II to commemorate his military victories. The obelisk was then moved to Alexandria and set up in the Caesareum, a temple built by Cleopatra in honor of Julius Caesar, by the Romans in 12 BCE. It was presented to the UK in 1819 by the ruler of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, in commemoration of the victories of Lord Nelson at the Battle of the Nile and Sir Ralph Abercromby at the Battle of Alexandria, but not installed until 1878. Cleopatra's Needle is flanked by two faux-Egyptian sphinxes cast from bronze that bear hieroglyphic inscriptions. The Sphinxes appear to be looking at the Needle rather than guarding it due to an improper installation.
[108] A paraphrase of William Shakespeare (from Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 2): ‘I trust that age doth not wither nor custom stale my infinite variety,’ also cited in The Adventure of the Empty House.
[109] A paraphrase of Honoré de Balzac (from The Magic Skin, 1831): ‘Thought is a key to all treasures; the miser’s gains are ours without his cares. Thus I have soared above this world, where my enjoyments have been intellectual joys.’
[110] This appears to have replaced his favorite weapon, the loaded hunting crop, which appears in multiple adventures. Leaded sticks are also used by Old Trevor (The ‘Gloria Scott’) and Fitzroy Simpson (Silver Blaze).
[111] Watson never tells us how he recognizes Parker, as he is only alluded to by Holmes in The Adventure of the Empty House. Presumably Lestrade picked him up on the advice of Holmes, and Watson then saw him at the trial of Colonel Sebastian Moran. Here we find an example of Holmes being too blasé, for clearly a professional garrotter cannot be too harmless, and Inspector Patterson paid the ultimate price of Parker being free.
[112] The faux sphinx has long ago been removed from Museum. It may be theorized that the conspirators got the idea from a colossal marble lion tomb monument from Knidos in the Greek part of Asia-Minor (modern day Turkey). This lion was carved c.350-200 BCE and weighs some six tons. Made from one piece of marble, it was mounted on a base crowning a funerary monument. The monument itself was square with a circular interior chamber and a stepped-pyramid roof. The monument was originally set on a headland terminating in a sheer cliff that falls some 200 feet into the sea. The hollow eyes of the lion were probably originally inset with colored glass, and the reflection of light may have been an aid to sailors navigating the notoriously difficult coast. The lion was found in 1859 by the architect Richard Pullan, who was a member of an expedition sent to acquire pieces of Greek sculpture and architecture for the British Museum.
[113] The Trojan Horse never appears directly in either the Iliad or the Odyssey, though Homer alludes to it in the latter volume. The story is primarily found in the ‘Posthomerica’ of Quintus of Smyrna.
[114] A well-known quote from Virgil’s Aeneid.
[115] This is clearly a reference to Watson’ famous ‘list of limits’ from Chapter II of A Study in Scarlet, where Holmes’ knowledge of literature is deemed to be ‘nil.’ Holmes must have taken this criticism to heart, for he later can be reading from a pocket Petrarch (The Boscombe Valley Mystery).
[116] Holmes never describes who he suspects as playing the role of Baron Schwartz. The most likely suspect is Baron Gruner (since Schwartz means ‘black’ and Gruner means ‘green’), who was one of the most dangerous men in Europe and who clearly survived his encounter with Holmes in The Adventure of the Illustrious Client.
[117] His case was alluded to in The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist, but never fully revealed.
[118] The ‘ash’ (or ‘aesc’) grapheme is the now-archaic ligature of the letters ‘a’ and ‘e,’ as in Ægypt.
[119] Strangely enough, this phrase does not appear to derive from the Trojan Horse! It seems to come from the fact that horses' gums recede as they age, which makes the teeth appear to grow long. Thus, checking the teeth of a horse is a way of checking for old age.
[120] Since a ‘seraphim’ is the highest rank in the hierarchy of angels.
[121] Beppo was once one of the most skilled sculptors in London, before he had taken to evil courses (The Adventure of the Six Napoleons).
[122] Saffron Hill was not an actual name of a part of London, but rather the nickname of the Italian Quarter centered in Holborn (The Adventure of the Six Napoleons).
[123] Holmes’ once dined at this garish Italian restaurant on Gloucester Road while planning to burgle the residence of Hugo Oberstein (The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans). The fact that Holmes speaks Italian (as demonstrated in The Adventure of the Red Circle) must have been helpful in this search.
[124] Lestrade appears to be much more concerned with catching the killer of a fellow Inspector than with recovering the Museum’s missing items, the location of which is still unclear.
[125] Holmes is paraphrasing himself (from A Case of Identity), which is itself a paraphrase of Hamlet, Act I, Scene 2.
[126] Mark Twain: ‘Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t’ (from Following the Equator, 1897). It was also attributed to Lord Byron in his Don Juan.
[127] Holmes is referring to the events recorded in Chapter I of The Valley of Fear.
[128] Watson has mentioned ‘the repulsive story of the red leech’ before (The Adventure of the Golden Pince
-Nez) but has never given any details other than this tantalizing tidbit.
[129] The title of this Appendix is taken from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1930 book on spiritualism, The Edge of the Unknown.
[130] From The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire.
[131] The Hound of the Baskervilles, of course.
[132] The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire.
[133] The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot.
[134] The Adventure of the Creeping Man.
[135] Alluded to in The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb.
[136] Alluded to in The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax.
[137] Alluded to in The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez.
[138] Alluded to in The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire.
[139] From The Problem of Thor Bridge.
[140] From Chapter II, The Edge of the Unknown.