A Case of Identity.
The case begins Monday, April 16, 1888.
Why?
NOTABLE SINGLE RESIDENT AT BAKER STREET:
". . . Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street."
". . . Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street."
UNCHRONICLED CASE REFERENCE:
"But here" — I picked up the morning paper from the ground — "let us put it to a practical test. Here is the first heading upon which I come. ‘A husband’s cruelty to his wife.’"
"This is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged in clearing up some small points in connection with it."
"But here" — I picked up the morning paper from the ground — "let us put it to a practical test. Here is the first heading upon which I come. ‘A husband’s cruelty to his wife.’"
"This is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged in clearing up some small points in connection with it."
SIGNIFICANT PASSAGE OF TIME:
"Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers."
"Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers."
NOTABLE STATE OF WATSON’S WRITING CAREER:
"I cannot confide it even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of my little problems."
"I cannot confide it even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of my little problems."
PRIOR ACQUAINTANCE OF QUESTIONABLE VALUE:
"I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had given him up for dead."
"I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had given him up for dead."
AGE REFERENCES OF QUESTIONABLE VALUE:
"Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself."
". . . she married again so soon after father’s death, and a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself."
"Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself."
". . . she married again so soon after father’s death, and a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself."
SIGNIFICANT DAY REFERENCES:
"That was last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything since then to throw any light upon what became of him."
"I advertised for him in last Saturday’s Chronicle."
"Missing [it said] on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman named Hosmer Angel."
"That was last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything since then to throw any light upon what became of him."
"I advertised for him in last Saturday’s Chronicle."
"Missing [it said] on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman named Hosmer Angel."
EVENT REFERENCE OF QUESTIONABLE VALUE:
"You will find parallel cases, if you consult my index, in Andover in ‘77, and there was something of the sort at The Hague last year."
"You will find parallel cases, if you consult my index, in Andover in ‘77, and there was something of the sort at The Hague last year."
SIGNIFICANT REFERENCES TO PRIOR CASES:
"Once only had I known him to fail, in the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of ‘The Sign of Four’, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with ‘A Study in Scarlet’, I felt that it would be a strange tangle indeed which he could not unravel.
"Once only had I known him to fail, in the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of ‘The Sign of Four’, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with ‘A Study in Scarlet’, I felt that it would be a strange tangle indeed which he could not unravel.
STATE OF WATSON’S MEDICAL PRACTICE:
"A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own attention at the
time, and the whole of next day I was busy at the bedside of the sufferer."
"A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own attention at the
time, and the whole of next day I was busy at the bedside of the sufferer."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
October 18, 1887.
October 18, 1887.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
October 9, 1889.
October 9, 1889.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY’S TIMETABLE:
Spring is the time of courtship and mating urges, and it is spring to which we must inevitably consign "A Case of Identity," based on biology alone. Weeks have passed since Holmes saw Watson, and the detective has been rewarded for the Adler affair in that time, easily placing this case in spring of 1888, weeks after the late March doings of SCAN.
Spring is the time of courtship and mating urges, and it is spring to which we must inevitably consign "A Case of Identity," based on biology alone. Weeks have passed since Holmes saw Watson, and the detective has been rewarded for the Adler affair in that time, easily placing this case in spring of 1888, weeks after the late March doings of SCAN.
The ad in the Saturday paper advertises that Hosmer Angel is missing as of the morning of the 14th, which many chronologists assume means that the 14th was the day of the intended wedding (Friday). To me, Hosmer Angel wasn’t truly missing until the next night had passed without a word from him, and since the 14th of April 1888 falls handily on a Saturday, it seems to fill the bill quite nicely. Since Miss Sutherland has demonstrated her speed in taking recourse by getting the ad in Saturday’s paper following Friday’s wedding desertion, I have no doubt that she was on Holmes’s doorstep by Monday, making my date for this case’s beginning: Monday, April 16, 1888.
(One note of defense against an obvious question: When Holmes refers to "the other day, just before we went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary Sutherland" in October of 1890 (in REDH), he is not necessarily referring to IDEN. Like every good businessman, Sherlock Holmes did have repeat customers. As for the reference to SIGN, Watson is simply thinking about it as he writes the tale -- we can’t expect him to remember every though from years before.)
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