#The Blanched Soldier

[doingbad]

The thing is, you read the stories written by Dr Watson and you think “this is the most down bad a narrator has ever been” and then you get to the stories written by Sherlock Holmes from his perspective and he’s somehow worse.

[lichenluvr]

Watson says all the time, Holmes is so emotionless, Holmes is a cold machine made of logic, but one of the only times a story is from Holmes' POV, he's all like they were DOOMED friends they LOVED each other but were TORN APART CRUELLY by fate and a really aggressive father ALSO I miss Watson SO BAD

[our-detective-so-supreme]

Put a knife through my heart, it would hurt less! 💔 😭

[sarnie-for-varney]

Okay so... in The Blanched Soldier, Holmes calls Watson an 'ideal helpmate'.

'Ideal helpmate', at the time, was a synonym for spouse.

He is calling Watson his spouse.

[onceuponadisembo]

Sherlock Holmes wants to infodump me so bad

[i-dont-talk-for-days-on-end]

So Holmes canonical keeps a diary! And while I'm sure it only contains the "hard facts" of his life - like where he went and whom he talked to and maybe his expenses if he didn't keep them separately, and of course his case notes - it is very tempting to think that he maybe also made notes about Watson. The book he looked at for a moment longer than usual so Holmes knows what to get him for Christmas, his preferred composers (probably not the same as Holmes's), maybe a thing he said that struck a chord with Holmes ...

[dathen]

Would you like to read the opening chapter of my monograph concerning the human ear? I am certain you will find it much more engaging. I believe I will begin thus:

It is sad to contemplate our lack of literature on ears—

FIAKFJAKFJKSJFD INCREDIBLE

[un-monstre]

Sherlock gets so grumpy when separated from Watson for any length of time. He’s like a pair-bonded shelter cat.

[blistering-typhoons]

love how a good majority of people i've ever spoken to in this fandom agree that james and godfrey from BLAN are boyfriends-

like yeah, look at them, how could they not be.

[thefisherqueen]

There was not a finer lad in the regiment. We formed a friendship—the sort of friendship which can only be made when one lives the same life and shares the same joys and sorrows. He was my mate—and that means a good deal in the Army. 

*whispering* Oh my god, they were mates

[winterdaphne2]

Musings on Johnlock and Moftisson's Use of Dialogue from ACD Canon

I recently finished rereading the original ACD Sherlock Holmes stories, and I had a lot of fun spotting places where the BBC Sherlock writers lifted dialogue directly from the original canon and incorporated it into the show. For example, this exchange between Sherlock and Moriarty during the pool scene in TGG…

Moriarty: I would try to convince you, but everything I have to say has already crossed your mind. Sherlock: Probably my answer has crossed yours.

…comes from Holmes and Moriarty’s first meeting in “The Adventure of the Final Problem,” with only very slight modifications.

Moriarty: All that I have to say has already crossed your mind. Holmes: Then possibly my answer has crossed yours.

Another one of my favorites might be when Sherlock says “Sorry, I never could resist a touch of drama” to Mary in the Leinster Gardens scene in HLV. This line comes from “The Adventure of the Naval Treaty,” where Holmes shocks his client by revealing the missing treaty from under a serving dish and then says “…Watson here will tell you that I never can resist a touch of the dramatic.” (The Sherlock writers liked this one so much that they gave it a callback in TAB. In the church scene, Sherlock strikes a gong to catch the women’s attention and then says “Sorry, I could never resist a gong, or a touch of the dramatic.”)

There are lots of other examples!

What really caught my eye during my reread, though, were places where it seemed like the show writers lifted lines from the ACD stories, but then changed them in some way or incorporated them into the show in ways that changed their meanings or significance. I think there are a few places where they did this and perhaps made the dialogue more…Johnlocky.

There are four passages in particular that I’m thinking about. I would love to hear your thoughts on these!

 “Oscillation on the pavement always means there’s a love affair.” In TSOT, Sherlock says this to John as John looks out the window of the 221B sitting room and watches a potential client trying to make up her mind about whether to come in.

Sherlock: She’s a client. She’s boring. I’ve seen those symptoms before. Oscillation on the pavement always means there’s a love affair.

This comes from the ACD story “A Case of Identity”:

Holmes: I have seen those symptoms before. Oscillation upon the pavement always means an affaire de cœur.

The literal situation in the original story is very similar; Holmes is looking out the window of the sitting room and watching a potential client try to make up her mind about whether to come in. In the show, however, this line is much more significant than just an observation about a client. As many of us have recognized, in the show there’s some very important subtext going on because this is a reference to John’s oscillation on the pavement in TEH, when John came to visit Sherlock after their disastrous reunion but hesitated outside the door.

(gifs from @afishlearningpoetry, here)

So in the show, because the writers also included John’s oscillation on the pavement in the previous episode, this line becomes much more important. The text of the line itself is pretty much the same as in the original story and appears in a very similar immediate context, but the show writers changed the broader context to modify its meaning and significance. Now it’s about Sherlock and John and full of Johnlock subtext.

I also think the fact that we’re talking about a love affair is significant. This tells us that John feels torn between Mary and Sherlock after Sherlock’s return in TEH and he’s not really sure what to do about it. I wonder if this might be a clue that John was already thinking about cheating on Mary with Sherlock in TEH—we saw that he was prepared to do this a few months later during the stag night in TSOT. Read another way, perhaps the reference to an “affair” here indicates that John is already cheating on Sherlock by being with Mary, because the real love story in this show is always the one between Sherlock and John. Just a thought.

When they lifted this line from “A Case of Identity,” the show writers also changed the French phrase “affaire de cœur” to the English phrase “love affair.” I’m not a French speaker, but I think “affaire de cœur” might have the same meaning in French that “love affair” has in English—it’s not just referring to an “affair of the heart,” as in something to do with love, but to an actual affair. But please, if there are any French speakers reading this, I would love to hear what you think! If this phrase does have a different connotation in French, that could be really interesting.

“…he has many fine qualities of his own that he has overlooked in his obsession with me.” There are at least two lines from Sherlock’s best man speech that seem to have been inspired by the original stories, but changed slightly. Here’s the first one.

Sherlock: If I burden myself with a little help-mate during my adventures, it is not out of sentiment or caprice—it is that he has many fine qualities of his own that he has overlooked in his obsession with me.

This comes from “The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier,” one of only two stories in the original canon narrated by Holmes instead of Watson. In the original story, Holmes writes this:

Holmes: Speaking of my old friend and biographer, I would take this opportunity to remark that if I burden myself with a companion in my various little inquiries it is not done out of sentiment or caprice, but it is that Watson has some remarkable characteristics of his own, to which in his modesty he has given small attention amid his exaggerated estimates of my own performances.

Sherlock’s line in TSOT is a bit harsher towards John than what Holmes writes in the original story, but it comes in the section of the speech where Sherlock is purposely trying to make himself look like a jerk. Sherlock is deliberately self-deprecating right after this, explaining that “…if I didn’t understand I was being asked to be best man, it is because I never expected to be anybody’s best friend. Certainly not the best friend of the bravest and kindest and wisest human being I have ever had the good fortune of knowing.” So perhaps we shouldn’t take Sherlock too seriously when reading this line in particular.

Even so, it seems notable to me that the show writers changed the end of the quote and specifically chose to have Sherlock use the word “obsession” to describe John’s attitude towards him. That word isn’t in the passage from the ACD story, so I feel like the writers must have put it there for a reason. To me, “obsession” feels like much stronger language that what Holmes wrote and is more suggestive of love or infatuation than of a platonic relationship.

Moreover, I wonder if Sherlock’s use of the word “obsession” here is also meant to give us a clue as to how Sherlock sees John’s feelings towards him at this point in the narrative. Personally, I think Sherlock has known or suspected that John is in love with him ever since he overheard John and Irene’s conversation at Battersea in ASIB. But I also think that by the time we get to S3 (and especially to HLV) Sherlock and John have both come to believe that their love for each other is destructive and dangerous. (I could write a much longer meta about this, and might do so at some point.) So to me, perhaps Moftisson using the word “obsession” here is meant to indicate that Sherlock believes John’s love for him is unhealthy, or that John doesn’t see him clearly. It’s a very sad thought. But then again, I might be reading too much into this, because after all, this is the part of the speech that Sherlock later tells us to dismiss by revealing that he purposely meant to make himself look bad here.

Although actually that’s still pretty sad, because Sherlock is basically saying that he doesn’t deserve John. So I guess either way, Moftisson took what was actually a pretty sweet and complementary thing that Holmes said about Watson in the original canon and made it part of the evidence that Sherlock is feeling quite down on himself by this point in the narrative of the show.

“…but then, you know, he’s a romantic.” In the best man speech, we also get this line from Sherlock when he’s talking about John’s blog and how John writes up their cases.

Sherlock: Of course, he does tend to romanticize things a bit, but then, you know, he’s a romantic.

In the original ACD stories, Holmes often critiques Watson’s writing style and how he presents their cases in his stories for the Strand and other magazines. One of the first instances of this takes place in The Sign of Four, where Holmes critiques Watson’s write-up of A Study in Scarlet.

Holmes: I glanced over it. Honestly, I cannot congratulate you upon it. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid. Watson: But the romance was there. I could not tamper with the facts. Holmes: Some facts should be suppressed, or, at least, a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them. The only point in the case which deserved mention was the curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes, by which I succeeded in unravelling it. Watson [narrating to the reader]: I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially designed to please him. I confess, too, that I was irritated by the egotism which seemed to demand that every line of my pamphlet should be devoted to his own special doings.

We could probably have a whole separate conversation about the queer subtext in this passage, but I’ll try to stick to the aspects of this that I think are particularly relevant here. First, Holmes specifically uses the word “romanticism,” basically saying what Sherlock said in the show when he said that John tends to “romanticize” their cases. So this is pretty similar! But what I think is different is that in the passage from The Sign of Four, Holmes is criticizing Watson’s writing in a negative fashion, is actively pointing out areas for improvement, and seems a bit peeved, or at least not wholly impressed. Watson certainly takes it that way, since he writes that he was “annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially designed to please him.”

In contrast, Moftisson softened Sherlock’s comments significantly for the best man speech. He’s not actually picking a bone with John like Holmes is in the original canon. Sherlock is still saying that John is “a romantic” who “romanticizes” their cases together, but he doesn’t mean it in a bad way!

(gif from thejohnlocked, here)

And now here’s the sad part, because this is BBC Sherlock, after all. When Sherlock says this, his voice drops in pitch a bit and sounds sadder, more subdued. He also looks down, avoiding eye contact with John. So the way this line appears in the show, it’s about Sherlock acknowledging that John is a romantic in the context of John marrying someone else. Sherlock knows that side of John isn’t directed solely or mostly at him anymore.

“Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it.” In TLD, Sherlock says this to Faith after he realizes that she’s seriously thinking about committing suicide.

Sherlock: “Taking your own life.” Interesting expression. Taking it from who? Oh, once it’s over, it’s not you who’ll miss it. Your own death is something that happens to everybody else. Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it.

This comes from “The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger,” where Holmes also encounters a woman who has a plan to commit suicide and talks her out of it. Moffat wrote TLD, and he took these two sentences in particular straight from the original story with no wording changes:

Holmes: Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it.

There’s not much that I like about S4, but I do think this is one place where the writers actually improved on a line from the original canon and used it very effectively in the show. In this scene from TLD, it’s so clear that Sherlock is talking about his own fake suicide. His small speech to Faith demonstrates that he feels deep, genuine regret over his actions on the rooftop that day because of what his fake death did to John.

In the original canon, “The Veiled Lodger” is set in 1896 (see here), so it takes place after Holmes’s fake death at the Reichenbach Falls in 1891 and his return to London in 1894. The dialogue that surrounds the two sentences that Moffat pulled is more about the minor character than about Holmes, though, so although it’s possible that Holmes was thinking of his own fake death when he said them, it’s not as obvious as it is in the show.

In TLD, Sherlock first says “Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it,” to Faith as she’s leaving 221B, similarly to how Holmes says this to the minor character at the end of their interview in “The Veiled Lodger.” But Moffat decided to have Sherlock say these lines again later on when they’re by the water, and in that scene he added this part to Sherlock’s dialogue, which isn’t in the original story and makes it clear what Sherlock is really talking about:

Sherlock: “Taking your own life.” Interesting expression. Taking it from who? Oh, once it’s over, it’s not you who’ll miss it. Your own death is something that happens to everybody else.

If we accept S4 as the official ending of the show, then Sherlock’s fake suicide in TRF is the crucial turning point in Sherlock and John’s love story. It is the terrible event that they are never able to recover from, and it sets in motion all of the pain that follows after. (This is also something I could write a much longer meta about.) So having Sherlock express such deep regret over it in TLD was actually a very powerful move on Moffat’s part. So yeah, that’s at least one good writing choice in S4. (*Screams*)

Anyway, this is what’s been on my mind recently, and I would love to hear what you think in the reblogs and replies! Thank you for reading 😊

[eirinstiva]

La aventura del soldado de la piel descolorida and translating love terms

After three letters from Sherlock Holmes, a cup two cups of tea and an alfajor I'm ready (?) to write about The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier, known in Spahish as La aventura del soldado de la piel descolorida (in my copy of Todo Sherlock Holmes) or La aventura del soldado de la piel decolorada.

One of the principal problems in translations is to translate one word into a group of another ones and choose the most accurate for each case. Love as a noun can be translated as it follows:

Amor: affection, romantic feelings, lover, affectionate term. Enamoramiento: romantic feelings. Querido, querida: dear, affectionate term. Cariño: affection, affectionate term. Pasión: strong liking. Aprecio: regard, esteem

And as a verb:

Amar: feel affection for somebody, be fond of somebody, have romantic feelings for somebody. Querer: feel affection for somebody. Adorar: like strongly. Apreciar: be fond of somebody.

The use changes according to times, dialects, gender, even personal experience. That's why every time I go to a store and a Venezuelan person calls me "mi amor" my cold southerner Chilean arse is screaming in panic because I don't use it at all, even with my pets.

Anyway _(:з)∠)_

In the first letter we had "You must put it down, sir, to my real love for your son." was translated as "Tiene usted que disculparme, señor. Cárguelo a cuenta del cariño que siento por su hijo". In this case there's no much difference because cariño is a word used for friends, family and lovers, so this can be interpretated in many ways. Later Dodd said "I was fond of your son Godfrey, sir." which can be translated as "Señor, yo apreciaba mucho a su hijo Godfrey." and still the sense of love is present.

However, in the same letter Holmes call Watson "an ideal helpmate", or "un ayudante ideal" in Spanish. Ayudante is used here as a helper, and it doesn't have the same strong feeling that helpmate that can be used for spouse. Helpmate has a degree of affection that ayudante doesn't have. Ayudante is more used in work or study context, and in my personal opinion it's too cold to use with somebody that has been at your side for so many years. Shame on you, Holmes in Spanish! ಠ_ಠ

This story has something, that little spiciness between James and Godfrey, and in the constants laments of Holmes missing Watson that even translating love as cariño or aprecio you can feel something intense is happening here. To finish this I quote Jesús Ulceroy's comments of this story and the role of Watson in Holmes' work as a detective:

Si sabemos leer entre líneas, nos damos cuenta de que la torpeza de Watson es una figuración, un fingimiento. Un ardid que permite al ambiente relajarse y que agudiza los sentidos analíticos del detective. Pese a todo, Holmes nos vuelve a dar su bofetada al declarar resuelto el caso mucho antes del final del mismo: un final seco y feliz. Un final explicativo. Y un ardiente deseo finamente expresado para que Watson vuelva. ¡Ah, el amor, sus egoísmos!

Translating into English is:

If we know how to read between the lines, we realize that Watson's clumsiness is a figuration, a pretence. A trick that allows the environment to relax and that sharpens the detective's analytical senses. Despite everything, Holmes slaps us again by declaring the case solved long before its end: a dry and happy ending. An explanatory ending. And a finely expressed burning wish for Watson to return. Ah, the love, the selfishness of it!

[stephensmithuk]

The Boer War (1899-1902)

If the 1897 Diamond Jubilee is seen as the zenith of the British Empire, the Boer War is arguably the start of its collapse.

There are two conflicts with the name "Boer War", of which the second is by far the better known.

"Boer" is Afrikaans for farmer. The two wars are known as "the Freedom Wars" in the Afrikaans language and "the South African War" in the country itself.

More specifically, the Boers were Dutch farmers who emigrated from the Dutch and then British-controlled Cape Colony north and east into the Transvaal region that is now north-east South Africa, to get away from what they saw as an oppressive government. As well as the fact that the British abolished slavery, which they wanted to keep. So yeah. They were more specifically known as "Trekboers" or travelling farmers. Trek is of course where we get the term Star Trek from.

The first conflict from 1880-1881 started after a farmer refused to pay an illegally inflated tax, had his wagon seized - and his friends then assaulted the auction.

The Boers, better equipped, better trained and far more experienced at shooting than their British opponents, managed to defeat the latter in three major engagements. Unwilling to become engaged in a major conflict, London negotiated a peace deal that gave the South African Republic effectively full control over internal affairs, although the British retained control of external relations. This was the first time the British had lost a war to rebels since the American War of Independence.

Then gold was found in the region and an influx of immigrants, mostly British, turned up, seeking their fortune. Johannesburg emerged as a major community overnight. This caused a lot of tensions, even more so when the government in Praetoria (the SAR capital) denied the 'uitlanders' civil rights.

In 1896, Cape Colony Prime Minister Cecil Rhodes authorised Leander Starr Jameson to conduct a raid into the territory with the aim of triggering a revolution. The raid was badly botched, failed and caused massive embarrassment to the British government, especially when Kaiser Wilhelm II sent a congratulatory telegram to the SAR government... and telegrams showing Rhodes' involvement were found. Jameson, while lionised in the press, spent 15 months in Holloway for the raid.

Shortly after this, the Second Matabele War saw the British have to deal with an uprising by the Ndebele and Shona peoples in what is now Zimbabwe. They defeated it, but with many losses on both sides.

Tensions between the British and the Boers continued to grow after the Jameson Raid; the uitlanders did not see their rights improve, the Boers mistreated the African population, and a lot of the British establishment thought it would be an easy victory. The generals, for their part, did not.

The SAR had acquired high quality weaponry from Germany and France, including bolt-action Mauser rifles. The British Army for its part was in dire need of reform.

The war broke out in 1899 after an ultimatum from SAR leader Paul Kruger for the British to withdraw their forces from the border. The SAR had allied with the Orange Free State by this point.

The Boers had formed civilian militias called "commandos". They launched an invasion of the Natal and Cape Colony, soon putting British garrisons under siege. One notable such siege was at Mafeking, where the British commander was one Robert Baden-Powell, whose use of scouting, along the deception to make his defences look better than they were allowed his force to hold out for 217 days until relieved. He would later use his experience in scouting to form, well, the Scouting Movement.

After a series of major reverses, it was clear the British were going to need to send major reinforcements, recruiting a lot of volunteers - the biggest overseas force Britain had sent to date. They also removed their local commanders and put new ones in.

The sieges were lifted and Praetoria was captured on 5 June 1900 - at which point the Boers (along with foreign volunteers) moved to guerilla warfare, something that they were very adept at, in stark contrast to the British. However, harassment is not the same as taking and holding ground.

Both forces tried to minimise the involvement of people of colour due to fear of what would happen if they armed Africans, but personnel shortages meant they ended up being involved anyway, usually in supporting roles. Mahatma Gandhi, who was a civil rights activist there, formed a corps of volunteer stretcher bearers from the Indian population.

Realising that they were only controlling the territory that they were physically in, the British changed their tactics.

Firstly, they built fortified blockhouses and armoured trains to control their supply routes.

Secondly, the British adopted a "scorched earth" policy; they rounded up Boer and African civilians, placing them in concentration camps, while also systematically destroying farms, crops etc. that the Boer forces could use to supply themselves.

The Spanish had used concentration camps in Cuba earlier in the 19th century, but this was a much wider use. With little or no soap, along with dirty water, disease swept through the overcrowded camps, with over 46,000 dying in them, including a quarter of the Boers in them - African numbers interned were not properly counted. Emily Hobhouse exposed the horrific conditions, and the matter was taken up by domestic politicians. A government commission led by Millicent Fawcett then recommended major improvements, which were largely implemented and brought down the death rate, but the damage had been done by this point.

The brutal tactics were sadly effective; the Boers were beginning to give up. However, the British themselves were running out of time and money, so gave them a generous settlement in the 1902 Treaty of Vereeniging; while the SAR and Orange Free State would be absorbed into the British Empire, Dutch could be used in schools and courts, there would be a general amnesty and reconstruction aid would be given.

Self-government was also promised and granted; it was decided that the issue of black enfranchisement would not be discussed until then - and full enfranchisement would not come until 1993.

The war was controversial in the UK; it was opposed by the opposition Liberal Party. Lord Salisbury called a snap election in 1900 and won with a slightly reduced majority. The next election in 1906 was a massive defeat for them though.

The conflict also exposed the dire state of British public health - with up to 40% of volunteers for the war being rejected on health grounds. This spurred the creation of the National Insurance system.

Arthur Conan Doyle volunteered for military service in the conflict; but was turned down due to his age. Instead, he served for three months in a field hospital and then wrote two books about the conflict. The second one, defending Britain's involvement in the war, was felt by Doyle to be the work that got him his knighthood in 1902.

The war was also notable for one journalist who after being captured by the South Africans, managed to escape from behind enemy lines, using the publicity to get into Parliament on his second attempt. His name was Winston Churchill.

At 2022 values, the war cost Britain over £19.9 billion.

They had also had 26,092 soldiers killed to the Boers 6,189. As with all wars at this time, disease was the biggest killer.

[amypihcs]

HELLO HUMANS! Well, well, a new letter from our dear W-AIT WHAT?

W-what? Holmes is WRITING?? DAAAMN. Watson messing with carpentry and beating his fingers instead of the nails... well, he just got the WRONG nails. Luckily Holmes is taking care of him! And agreed to write to us!

Ah Holmes, no need to be so bitter about it! Or maybe you are teasing you husband, uh? And yes. You tormented him with criticism and this is the payback. Write your own story and then take your own steps to apologize to Watson. Talking of him.

Watson, reading this: I am an unfeeling, rational and non-sentimental machine, so i'll present you an entire paragraph on how much i love my husband Holmes, blushing crimson: Shut up you insufferable tease W: Just admit that you love me H: I did it thrice in the first 10 minutes after we woke up this morning -snuggling watson noises- Now read on.

W: A WIFE, HOLMES? She was a PATIENT. She was having difficulties with the last stretch of her pregnancy and i had to go at hers!

Also i love how Holmes describes his way of analyzing his clients. And also how he goes 'so, Watson likes it when i do my deductions, it impresses Watson, and also other people, so i'll deduce this man's last years of life'

And at his surprise the reaction is

I miss my Watson so please give me the fact and hope this case is challenging as your letter made hope... WAIT, WHAT? KICKED YOU OUT? TELL ME MORE! -puffing on his pipe-

Stop being cheeky, lad. Tell the FACTS.

And he does. He was in South Africa and there he met a guy and they bonded a lot and he was wounded and now he disappeared!

Holmes is in this moment sympathizing with young Godfrey, he's interested!

Story continues. Our guy here manages to get himself invited to their place, a quite inaccessible one and gets shown into the father's study. the interview is not pleasing.

The man tells him to go the hell away and leave them alone since he ALREADY EXPLAINED, our pal says that his 'explanations' are a big load of bullshit. Man tells him to stay for dinner. Atmosphere is DEPRESSING and he climbs to his room as soon as decent and then the butler drops in!

Butler is like super old and his wife nursed Godfrey and so he asks if his foster kid behaved well in war and then he starts talking weird... in past tense as if he was dead. OF COURSE OUR PAL ASKS

THAT'S ONE HELL OF AN ANSWER, DAMNIT!

W: Ah, so now i'm matters, Holmes. Nice cliffhanger H: -grumble grumble- Writing this stuff is difficult. I'll propose them the ear monograph! W: at least it's not the tobacco one... H: Which you read... -bickering goes on-

Our Holmes left us with a cliffhanger just like his husband does! We'll hear the continuation in the next letter!

[alynnl]

So, this part of The Blanched Soldier:

I have two theories as to what could have happened and what the butler meant. (I'm a first time reader of all ACD Holmes so I'll find out if I'm accurate later!)

First theory: Godfrey has ended up in an institution (maybe from PTSD after fighting in the war?) but everyone is hushing up about it because of the attitudes about mental health at the time.

Second theory: Godfrey ended up committing a crime and his "tour around the world" is actually him being on the run from the law.

[i-dont-talk-for-days-on-end]

And here it is that I miss my Watson. By cunning questions and ejaculations of wonder he could elevate my simple art, which is but systematized common sense, into a prodigy.

HOLMES. He has done it again. This reminds me so much of the beginning of the story where he writes:

The good Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action which I can recall in our association. I was alone.

In both cases, the longer sentence could technically be read as criticism (or a compliment!) or irony, thus taking away some if the rawness of "I was alone" and "And here it is that I miss my Watson".

But. But then Holmes says "my Watson" (an expression he uses often!) which is so clearly indicating that they still belong together, Watson may be married but he's still Holmes's Watson, at least in Holmes's thoughts ... And although he has brought his strange new doctor friend, he could not replace his Watson or even only his unique skill set.

This is often a feature of the cases, but I also think it's weird how abruptly the story is over. Clearly, for Holmes it's Case Closed - end of narrative. But the thing that strikes me is that we don't learn anything about Dodd's reaction. Won't he be overjoyed to learn he will be reunited with his friend? (No, because there is no reunion between Holmes and Watson.) And why is there no real conclusion, only the suggestion that the symptoms might be psychosomatic?

But is it coincidence? Are there not subtle forces at work of which we know little? Are we assured that the apprehension from which this young man has no doubt suffered terribly since his exposure to its contagion may not produce a physical effect which simulates that which it fears?

This case openly suggests a psychological explanation, and sorry, I can't stop think about the Holmes/Watson mirror (Emsworth was shot in the shoulder), and how Watson is married and how Holmes is alone ... And society keeps them apart, because no matter whether they were in any kind of romantic or sexual relationship, for two bachelors to live together for so long must have been a bit suspicious (and let's not forget the "combination of events, into which I need not enter,").

This story's leitmotif is the search for a lost friend, and the whole last paragraph seems to me to speak of how internalised prejudice makes you sick. We never see the social outcast who was shunned by society because of a alleged "disease" actually return to a regular life. We don't know if it will be possible. Holmes will certainly go home alone.

Oh, I really wonder what Watson thought when he read all that.