Chapter Text
Chapter 1: “Recalled to life” is from “A Tale of two Cities” by Charles Dickens.
Chapter 2: Taken from an actual 1859 Victorian alphabet book that Sherlock used to teach John to read. The page reads: “B is for Ball, that boys kick about”.
Chapters 3, 12 and 17 are from the 19th century Anglican hymn “Not here for high and holy things”. In this universe, it is John’s favorite hymn. These are the first two verses:
Not here for high and holy things
we render thanks to thee,
but for the common things of earth,
the purple pageantry
of dawning and of dying days,
the splendor of the sea,
the royal robes of autumn moors,
the golden gates of spring,
the velvet of soft summer nights,
the silver glistering
of all the million million stars,
the silent song they sing.
Chapter 4: “Earth stood hard as iron” is taken from the Christina Rosetti poem and Christmas carol “In the bleak midwinter”, which the servants sing (not very well) on Christmas. It is also the world’s most obscure shout-out to the excellent CaitlinFairchild story “In the bleak midwinter”.
Chapter 5: “The adventure of the golden pince-nez” is an ACD canon story, of course.
Chapter 6: “Nothing in life shall sever” is a line from the “Eton boating song”.
Chapter 7: From the Friedrich Schiller poem which Beethoven used for the “Ode to Joy” chorus in the Ninth Symphony. The passage translates as “Whoever can call even one soul/his own upon this earth” (shall join the jubilation, and so forth). Sherlock heard this performed in Munich and, being that kind of adolescent, felt that the music was capturing his anguished soul, because certainly no one else in the history of the world had ever loved as Sherlock did.
Chapter 8: From Psalm 137: “By the waters of Babylon we lay down and wept, remembering Zion”.
Chapter 9: “The Valley of Fear” is one of the book-length (and least successful) tales in ACD canon. Good title though.
Chapters 10 and 11 are both taken from “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte, specifically the section that describes Jane’s miserable tenure at Lowood School. “So shine before men” is part of the inscription on the school’s nameplate, and Jane describes the school as being “a cradle of fog-bred pestilence” during a deadly outbreak of typhus. Somehow this book ended up getting sent to John and he dutifully read it, although he wasn’t all that into stories about girls. He did notice a striking resemblance between Aunt Wilkes and Aunt Reed though. Random fun trivia: I originally had Sherlock’s obnoxious cousins named for the Reeds (Jane’s cousin is George Reed) and changed it later using “find and replace”. I proofed chapter 19 right before posting and realized that I had never caught that it changed the name in the Shakespeare quote too, so now the last line read, “God for England, Harry, and St. Sebastian!”
Chapter 12: Taken from the first chapter of Romans, which goes on to say, “and likewise the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another…” Ah, St. Paul. “Use of the woman” indeed.
Chapter 13: “Milady’s secret” is a chapter title from “The Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas. This book was a great hit in the servants’ hall.
Chapter 15: “De profundis” is a Latin phrase used to refer to Psalm 130, which begins “Out of the depths I cry to thee”. Random trivia: it also refers to a letter written by Oscar Wilde to his former lover while Wilde was imprisoned for sodomy, which was not published until 1905 and has absolutely nothing to do with this story, but is interesting all the same.
Chapter 16: “Purity of virgin souls” is taken from the hymn known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate. Sherlock is not the type to have favorite hymns, but if he did it would be this one, which he likes because of its utter refusal to follow convention (it changes melodies and even keys every few verses). Really random trivia: “St. Patrick’s Breastplate” is a Holy Trinity hymn (what passes for its chorus begins “I bind unto myself today/the strong Name of the Trinity”) and I posted this chapter on Holy Trinity Sunday.
Chapter 18: taken from the prayer of confession in the Book of Common Prayer: “We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.” John and Sherlock would have recited this prayer many times (John sincerely and Sherlock less so).
Chapter 19: From the St. Crispin’s Day speech in “Henry V” which is cited at the end of the chapter. The line “the game’s afoot” is arguably better known from Holmes shouting it to wake Watson up in ACD canon than it is from its original context, but it is frequently misinterpreted to mean a game that one plays. It actually refers to game that is hunted.
Chapter 20: “Bright shining as the sun” is a reference (apparently) to paradise in the hymn “Amazing Grace”. This hymn was written by a former sea captain and slaver, John Newton, who had a religious conversion, became a clergyman, and subsequently devoted himself to the abolitionist movement. I imagine this hymn as being the equivalent of a 60’s protest song and very popular with the imaginary reformers in this story.