The Last Words of Sherlock Holmes
Being bombarded with advertising for a new Sherlock Holmes film I thought I’d remind myself of the greatest Holmes of all, Jeremy Brett. I have a complete collection on DVD of all the episodes produced by Granada TV between 1984 and 1994. I chose a couple at random to watch last night and it turned out that the pair included the very last one in the last series, based on the dark and disturbing story The Adventure of the Cardboard Box from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
Brett was gravely ill during the filming of the last series, largely owing to side-effects of the medication he had to take to deal with a severe depressive illness which plagued him for most of his life. It didn’t help that he had become almost obsessive about the character of Holmes, putting all his energy into doing the best possible job. It obviously took a lot out of him. He looks so much older in the last series than in the first, although it was only ten years after he made the first episodes. Jeremy Brett passed away in 1995, just a year after the last episode was filmed, but his Sherlock Holmes will live forever.
The last words spoken by Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes are at the end (from 8.55 onwards) of the following clip, a piece of film so poignant that I find it almost unbearable to watch.
Follow @telescoperWhat is the meaning of it, Watson? What is the object of this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must have a purpose, or our universe has no meaning, and that is unthinkable. But what purpose? That is humanity’s great problem, to which reason so far, has no answer.
In the Dark 
December 16, 2011 at 9:51 am
Yes. The definitive Holmes. A bit somber but the closest portrayal of the book’s character.
December 16, 2011 at 9:57 am
At the time the first episodes were made, Brett cut a svelte and rather dashing figure and when I first saw them I was amazed at how much he looked like I had imagined Holmes to look when I read the books as a schoolboy. He was also extremely camp, in a way I still find completely wonderful.
December 16, 2011 at 10:10 am
For some reason camp worked so well for his version of Holmes, despite never imagining it would until I saw his portrayal. I think it’s because it was tempered by the melancholy of both the actor and of Holmes. The mix was surprisingly effective.
December 16, 2011 at 4:08 pm
You are in the company of most of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London in thinking Brett the best Holmes. But are these words from the Canon? Also, did Brett’s Holmes ever do cocaine – as Holmes did in the early novels at a time when it was a legal high?
Reason cannot answer that question of Holmes’, because reason is a way of navigating from premises to conclusions. Your answer depends not only on your reasoning but also on your premises. We all, unavoidably, have premises. Some acknowledge this, some don’t. All who have theistic premises are in the former group.
December 16, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Yes, he certainly did use cocaine, to Watson’s disapproval. The Devil’s Foot offers an example of Holmes using cocaine to dispel his boredom and the famous needle is also seen in The Musgrave Ritual.
The Adventure of the Cardboard Box does not appear in the original British edition of the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes because of its controversial subject matter. It did appear in Strand magazine with the other episodes, but wasn’t published in book form until later collections.
The last lines of the published version are:
“What is the meaning of it, Watson?” said Holmes solemnly as he laid down the paper. “What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.”
Interestingly different…
December 17, 2011 at 11:12 am
I had always presumed that Conan Doyle envisaged Holmes snorting (rather than injecting) it, as Victorian gentlemen did snuff, but I don’t know if the Canon is specific. I vaguely remember a reference to Holmes “reaching for the cocaine bottle” at the end of a long day’s sleuthing, but that proves nothing.
December 17, 2011 at 11:56 am
No, Holmes most definitely injected presumably because this produces the most rapid high.
Incidentally, it was not uncommon in Victorian times for cocaine to be administered in the form of a suppository, although there’s no evidence that Holmes took it this way.
December 17, 2011 at 12:16 pm
I don’t get that ‘because’. Holmes is not noted for being in a hurry with his pleasures. Have you please a reference from the Canon to his injecting?
December 17, 2011 at 12:42 pm
I think I meant it was a stronger high rather than necessarily a quicker one but the two are related through the means of delivery.
The most explicit example of Holmes’ cocaine use that springs to mind is from the opening passages of The Sign of Four:
As many have pointed out, what is surprising about this passage is not Holmes’ drug use but Dr Watson’s disapproving reaction to it. Apparently, the practice wasn’t particularly frowned upon by the medical establishment at the time.
December 17, 2011 at 1:46 pm
That’s definitive, thank you.
December 16, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Too bad the scriptwriter didn’t put some effort into writing it in blank verse. The theme brings to mind some of Hamlet’s soliloquies, “How all occasions do inform against me, and spur my dull revenge/ what is a man…” (Act 4 scene 4), “What a piece of work is a man…” (Act 2 scene 2), inevitably “To be or not to be…” and even his first words lamenting that he cannot even commit suicide.
Anyway, dear old Watson probably replied “Search me mate, we’ve cracked the case, now let’s go to the pub.”
December 19, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Very fine incidental music on this clip.
March 5, 2012 at 12:02 am
A truly classic Holmes.. Brett will live on forever.
Wish he had not suffered from his physical tribulations. He would have been alive today and enjoyed his much deserved success and recognition.