For this post, I want to take a few old Sherlock Holmes sentences from the final paragraph of the same story as last post and work with them through sentence, meaning, and word study. This material will be based on material 100 years old.
Source Material
This is the first paragraph in the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Adventure I. Scandal in Bohemia
And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman.
First of all, like almost all of Sherlock Holmes, the POV is Dr. John H. Watson—the narrator.
1. Kernel Sentences
Next, I'll list the kernel sentences.
And that was how the scandal threatened Bohemia.
The best plans of Holmes were beaten by a woman's wit.
He used to make merry over the cleverness of women.
I have not heard him do it of late.
When he speaks of Irene Adler it is always under the honourable title of the woman.
2. Word Dive
Then, I'll pick out certain words that I would like to look up and explore.
Definitions are from Webster's dictionary 1913 and some words are from thesaurus is from Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms 1920.
scandal
\Scan"dal\, v. t.
1. To treat opprobriously; to defame; to asperse; to traduce;
to slander.
[R.]
I do fawn on men and hug them hard And after scandal
them. --Shak.
2. To scandalize; to offend. [Obs.] --Bp. Story.
Syn: To defame; traduce; reproach; slander; calumniate;
asperse; vilify; disgrace.
scandal: discredit.
discredit, v. i. 1. disparage, dishonor, disgrace, shame, scandalize, stigmatize, attaint, stain, defame (archaic), impeach, derogate (rare or obs.), depreciate, compromise, infamize (rare), blot, infame (archaic), dispraise (rare), disfame (rare), endamage (rare), degrade, smirch. Most of these synonyms have specific implications.
Antonyms: see confirm, honor, flatter.
affect
\Af*fect"\ ([a^]f*f[e^]kt"), v. t. [imp. & p. p.
{Affected}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Affecting}.] [L. affectus, p. p.
of afficere to affect by active agency; ad + facere to make:
cf. F. affectere, L. affectare, freq. of afficere. See
{Fact}.]
1. To act upon; to produce an effect or change upon.
As might affect the earth with cold heat. --Milton.
The climate affected their health and spirits.
--Macaulay.
2. To influence or move, as the feelings or passions; to
touch.
A consideration of the rationale of our passions
seems to me very necessary for all who would affect
them upon solid and pure principles. --Burke.
3. To love; to regard with affection. [Obs.]
As for Queen Katharine, he rather respected than
affected, rather honored than loved, her. --Fuller.
4. To show a fondness for; to like to use or practice; to
choose; hence, to frequent habitually.
For he does neither affect company, nor is he fit
for it, indeed. --Shak.
Do not affect the society of your inferiors in rank,
nor court that of the great. --Hazlitt.
5. To dispose or incline.
Men whom they thought best affected to religion and
their country's liberty. --Milton.
6. To aim at; to aspire; to covet. [Obs.]
This proud man affects imperial sway. --Dryden.
7. To tend to by affinity or disposition.
The drops of every fluid affect a round figure.
--Newton.
8. To make a show of; to put on a pretense of; to feign; to
assume; as, to affect ignorance.
Careless she is with artful care, Affecting to seem
unaffected. --Congreve.
Thou dost affect my manners. --Shak.
9. To assign; to appoint. [R.]
One of the domestics was affected to his special
service. --Thackeray.
Syn: To influence; operate; act on; concern; move; melt;
soften; subdue; overcome; pretend; assume.
\Af*fect"\, n. [L. affectus.]
Affection; inclination; passion; feeling; disposition. [Obs.]
--Shak.
\Af*fect"\, n. (Psychotherapy)
The emotional complex associated with an idea or mental
state. In hysteria, the affect is sometimes entirely
dissociated, sometimes transferred to another than the
original idea.
affect, V. t. touch, reach, take (with "disease," "blow," "fancy," etc., as the subject), seize (with "idea" or the like as the subject), hit (colloq.); spec, possess, attack, infect, smite, hurt, trouble, move, grip, concern, interest, pierce, perturb, impress, penetrate, strike, nip (rare); see INFLUENCE, TAINT, THRILL, AGITATE, EXCITE, IMPRESS.
kingdom
\King"dom\, n. [AS. cyningd?m. See 2d {King}, and
-{dom}.]
1. The rank, quality, state, or attributes of a king; royal
authority; sovereign power; rule; dominion; monarchy.
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. --Ps. cxiv.
13.
When Jehoram was risen up to the kingdom of his
father, he strengthened himself. --2 Chron.
xxi. 4.
2. The territory or country subject to a king or queen; the
dominion of a monarch; the sphere in which one is king or
has control.
Unto the kingdom of perpetual night. --Shak.
You're welcome, Most learned reverend sir, into our
kingdom. --Shak.
kingdom: domain, group.
domain, n. 1. See estate, lordship, bound, control, sphere.
2. realm, reign (rare), dominion, bourn or bourne (rare or poetic), territory, possession; spec, kingdom, province, empire, empery (poetic or rhetorical), obedience, sultanate, khanate, daimiate, lordship, signory, dukedom, county, palatinate.
Bohemia
\Bo*he"mi*a\, n.
1. A country of central Europe.
2. Fig.: The region or community of social Bohemians. See
{Bohemian}, n., 3.
She knew every one who was any one in the land of
Bohemia. --Compton
Reade.
Bohemian
Of or pertaining to a social gypsy or ``Bohemian'' (see
{Bohemian}, n., 3); vagabond; unconventional; free and
easy. [Modern]
wit
\Wit\, v. t. & i. [inf. (To) {Wit}; pres. sing. {Wot}; pl.
{Wite}; imp. {Wist(e)}; p. p. {Wist}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Wit(t)ing}. See the Note below.] [OE. witen, pres. ich wot,
wat, I know (wot), imp. wiste, AS. witan, pres. w[=a]t, imp.
wiste, wisse; akin to OFries. wita, OS. witan, D. weten, G.
wissen, OHG. wizzan, Icel. vita, Sw. veta, Dan. vide, Goth.
witan to observe, wait I know, Russ. vidiete to see, L.
videre, Gr. ?, Skr. vid to know, learn; cf. Skr. vid to find.
????. Cf. {History}, {Idea}, {Idol}, {-oid}, {Twit}, {Veda},
{Vision}, {Wise}, a. & n., {Wot}.]
To know; to learn. ``I wot and wist alway.'' --Chaucer.
Note: The present tense was inflected as follows; sing. 1st
pers. wot; 2d pers. wost, or wot(t)est; 3d pers. wot,
or wot(t)eth; pl. witen, or wite. The following variant
forms also occur; pres. sing. 1st & 3d pers. wat, woot;
pres. pl. wyten, or wyte, weete, wote, wot; imp. wuste
(Southern dialect); p. pr. wotting. Later, other
variant or corrupt forms are found, as, in Shakespeare,
3d pers. sing. pres. wots.
Brethren, we do you to wit [make you to know] of
the grace of God bestowed on the churches of
Macedonia. --2 Cor. viii.
1.
Thou wost full little what thou meanest.
--Chaucer.
We witen not what thing we prayen here.
--Chaucer.
When that the sooth in wist. --Chaucer.
Note: This verb is now used only in the infinitive, to wit,
which is employed, especially in legal language, to
call attention to a particular thing, or to a more
particular specification of what has preceded, and is
equivalent to namely, that is to say.
\Wit\, n. [AS. witt, wit; akin to OFries. wit, G. witz, OHG.
wizz[=i], Icel. vit, Dan. vid, Sw. vett. [root]133. See
{Wit}, v.]
1. Mind; intellect; understanding; sense.
Who knew the wit of the Lord? or who was his
counselor? --Wyclif (Rom.
xi. 34).
A prince most prudent, of an excellent And unmatched
wit and judgment. --Shak.
Will puts in practice what wit deviseth. --Sir J.
Davies.
He wants not wit the dander to decline. --Dryden.
2. A mental faculty, or power of the mind; -- used in this
sense chiefly in the plural, and in certain phrases; as,
to lose one's wits; at one's wits' end, and the like.
``Men's wittes ben so dull.'' --Chaucer.
I will stare him out of his wits. --Shak.
3. Felicitous association of objects not usually connected,
so as to produce a pleasant surprise; also. the power of
readily combining objects in such a manner.
The definition of wit is only this, that it is a
propriety of thoughts and words; or, in other terms,
thoughts and words elegantly adapted to the subject.
--Dryden.
Wit which discovers partial likeness hidden in
general diversity. --Coleridge.
Wit lying most in the assemblage of ideas, and
putting those together with quickness and variety
wherein can be found any resemblance or congruity,
thereby to make up pleasant pictures in the fancy.
--Locke.
4. A person of eminent sense or knowledge; a man of genius,
fancy, or humor; one distinguished for bright or amusing
sayings, for repartee, and the like.
In Athens, where books and wits were ever busier
than in any other part of Greece, I find but only
two sorts of writings which the magistrate cared to
take notice of; those either blasphemous and
atheistical, or libelous. --Milton.
Intemperate wits will spare neither friend nor foe.
--L'Estrange.
A wit herself, Amelia weds a wit. --Young.
{The five wits}, the five senses; also, sometimes, the five
qualities or faculties, common wit, imagination, fantasy,
estimation, and memory. --Chaucer.
Nares.
But my five wits nor my five senses can Dissuade one
foolish heart from serving thee. --Shak.
Syn: Ingenuity; humor; satire; sarcasm; irony; burlesque.
Usage: {Wit}, {Humor}.
Wit primarily meant mind; and now
denotes the power of seizing on some thought or
occurrence, and, by a sudden turn, presenting it under
aspects wholly new and unexpected -- apparently
natural and admissible, if not perfectly just, and
bearing on the subject, or the parties concerned, with
a laughable keenness and force. ``What I want,'' said
a pompous orator, aiming at his antagonist, ``is
common sense.'' ``Exactly!'' was the whispered reply.
The pleasure we find in wit arises from the ingenuity
of the turn, the sudden surprise it brings, and the
patness of its application to the case, in the new and
ludicrous relations thus flashed upon the view. Humor
is a quality more congenial to the English mind than
wit. It consists primarily in taking up the
peculiarities of a humorist (or eccentric person) and
drawing them out, as Addison did those of Sir Roger de
Coverley, so that we enjoy a hearty, good-natured
laugh at his unconscious manifestation of whims and
oddities. From this original sense the term has been
widened to embrace other sources of kindly mirth of
the same general character. In a well-known caricature
of English reserve, an Oxford student is represented
as standing on the brink of a river, greatly agitated
at the sight of a drowning man before him, and crying
out, ``O that I had been introduced to this gentleman,
that I might save his life! The, ``Silent Woman'' of
Ben Jonson is one of the most humorous productions, in
the original sense of the term, which we have in our
language.
wit, n. 1. See intelligence, fun.
2. Referring to a wity person: spec, droll, bel-esprit (masc; French).
witty, a. clever (contextual), bright (contextual), funny (colloq.), sharp (contextual),
smart, sparkling.
Antonyms: see dull, stupid.
merry
\Mer"ry\, a. [Compar. {Merrier}; superl. {Merriest}.] [OE.
merie, mirie, murie, merry, pleasant, AS. merge, myrige,
pleasant; cf. murge, adv.; prob. akin to OHG. murg, short,
Goth. gama['u]rgjan to shorten; cf. L. murcus a coward, who
cuts off his thumb to escape military service; the
Anglo-Saxon and English meanings coming from the idea of
making the time seem short. Cf. {Mirth}.]
1. Laughingly gay; overflowing with good humor and good
spirits; jovial; inclined to laughter or play; sportive.
They drank, and were merry with him. --Gen. xliii.
34.
I am never merry when I hear sweet music. --Shak.
2. Cheerful; joyous; not sad; happy.
Is any merry ? let him sing psalms. --Jas. v. 13.
3. Causing laughter, mirth, gladness, or delight; as, ? merry
jest.
``Merry wind and weather.'' --Spenser.
merry: gay, cheerful.
cleverness
\Clev"er\, a. [Origin uncertain. Cf. OE. cliver eager,
AS. clyfer (in comp.) cloven; or clifer a claw, perh.
connected with E. cleave to divide, split, the meaning of E.
clever perh. coming from the idea of grasping, seizing (with
the mind).]
1. Possessing quickness of intellect, skill, dexterity,
talent, or adroitness; expert.
Though there were many clever men in England during
the latter half of the seventeenth century, there
were only two great creative minds. --Macaulay.
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever.
--C. Kingsley.
2. Showing skill or adroitness in the doer or former; as, a
clever speech; a clever trick. --Byron.
3. Having fitness, propriety, or suitableness.
``T would sound more clever To me and to my heirs
forever. --Swift.
4. Well-shaped; handsome.
``The girl was a tight, clever
wench as any was.'' --Arbuthnot.
5. Good-natured; obliging. [U. S.]
Syn: See {Smart}.
clever, a. 1. smart (now chiefly U. S.), cute (colloq.), good, pretty {archaic or colloq.), solert (obs.); see ABLE, INTELLIGENT, READY, INGENIOUS, SKILLFUL.
Antonyms: see dull, stupid, unintelligent, unskillful.
refers
\Re*fer"\, v. i.
1. To have recourse; to apply; to appeal; to betake one's
self; as, to refer to a dictionary.
In suits . . . it is to refer to some friend of
trust. --Bacon.
2. To have relation or reference; to relate; to point; as,
the figure refers to a footnote.
Of those places that refer to the shutting and
opening the abyss, I take notice of that in Job.
--Bp. Burnet.
3. To carry the mind or thought; to direct attention; as,
the preacher referred to the late election.
4. To direct inquiry for information or a guarantees of any
kind, as in respect to one's integrity, capacity,
pecuniary ability, and the like; as, I referred to his
employer for the truth of his story.
Syn: To allude; advert; suggest; appeal.
refer, v. i. 1. See relate, appeal.
2. allude, advert, glance, touch, point, squint {colloq.).
honourable
\Hon"or*a*ble\, a. [F. honorable, L. honorabilis.]
1. Worthy of honor; fit to be esteemed or regarded;
estimable; illustrious.
Thy name and honorable family. --Shak.
2. High-minded; actuated by principles of honor, or a
scrupulous regard to probity, rectitude, or reputation.
3. Proceeding from an upright and laudable cause, or directed
to a just and proper end; not base; irreproachable; fair;
as, an honorable motive.
Is this proceeding just and honorable? --Shak.
honorable, a. 1. good {contextual), worthy; spec, worshipful, admirable, famous, esteemed, respected, noble, elevated, reputable.
Antonyms: see discreditable.
2. See CONSCIENTIOUS, JUST, upright, virtuous, sincere, creditable, respectable.
Rewriting in my own way to interpret meaning
And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom of Bohemia, and how one witty woman beat the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes. He used to make fun of the cleverness of women, but I haven't heard him do it lately. And when he speaks about Irene Adler, or when he refers to her photograph, it is always under the honorable title of the woman.
Sentence Imitation
And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were beaten by a woman's wit.
And that was how a great plague threatened to affect the kingdom of Rohan, and how the brilliant strategy of Aragorn were beaten by a spider queen's poison.
And that was how the start of group menace caused great change in the future of local culture.
This is how the even a best friend's relationship may be overwhelmed by a deceptive enemy.
He used to make merry over the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late.
She used to mock his situation, but I haven't heard her do it recently.
He used to argue over petty issues, but he hasn't clashed verbally with me as of late.
And when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman.
And when she talks about Billy bob, it is always under the title of my man.
Analysis of Writing Exercises
This was more difficult that the last exercise, maybe because it was looking at the final paragraph of the story. I do see the sentence structure and word selection connection for the story Scandal in Bohemia between the opening paragraph and the closing paragraph.
“I confess that I have been as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.”
―
Arthur Conan Doyle,
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
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