Two Adventuresses

As long as Sherlockians have been able to draw in breath and spout forth criticism, certain comparisons have been made. REDH and 3GAR, for example, have long been-cited as two tales with one plot between them. Irene Adler, the New Jersey born contralto, has every so often been compared with Lily Langtry, also a New Jersey songstress and believed by many to be non-fictional (as opposed to Irene, who we know was real). With such parings being made so often, it seems strange that one more match-up does not seem to pop up in Sherlockian scholarship -- that of SCAN and NOBL.

The female leads of the two stories, Irene Adler and Hatty Doran, seem almost like sisters, in an antithetical sort of way. Both women are Americans, yet hail from opposite sides of the country. One is an opera star, the other a humble gold miner's daughter (which doesn't mean she couldn't sing -- Loretta Lynn was only a coal miner's daughter, and look how well she did). Both women are objects of affection to noblemen, yet both marry commoners. One lives on Serpentine Avenue, and the other "dies" in the Serpentine lake (or so Inspector Lestrade thought). And for those who like to get really trivial, both of their names, first and last, contain five letters.

The stories of Irene Adler and Hatty Doran are like strange mirror images of each other. Irene is chased by her nobleman, the King of Bohemia, and then marries her commoner, Godfrey Norton, which resolves the matter. Hatty marries her commoner, Francis Moulton, and then is chased by her nobleman, Lord St. Simon, only to resolve matters by rediscovering her commoner (the matter was resolved for her, at least). In both tales a revelation is made in a church during a wedding ceremony (Hatty realizes she is still married to Francis; Holmes realizes Irene is marrying Godfrey). The noblemen of both matters have their first flingi with a woman of the stage before settling down with plans to marry someone else -- the King of Bohemia with Irene Adler, before settling down with Clotilde Lothman, and Lord St. Simon with Flora Miller, before attempting wedded bliss with Hatty Doran.

Even though their individual lives are quite a contrast, those contrasts show amazing parallels -- so much so that one begins to suspect a connection between the two women.

Could they have been twins, separated at an early age? In the modern day, numerous cases have been recorded of twins separated at birth who go on to lead amazingly similar lives, not discovering the multitude of coincidences until they finally meet, some time after all the similarities have been well established. The parallel stories of Irene and Hatty suggest that kind of a relationship, and what little we know of their backgrounds does not disprove it. Hatty was raised in the West by her father; Irene was raised in the East, probably by a stage-mother without a father's tempering influence. The possibility for twin adventuresses does exist, and yet we are tempted to take the matter one step further.

Could Irene Adler and Hatty Doran have been the same woman?

On the surface, such an idea seems preposterous; the backgrounds of both women are too complete. Yet press releases on opera singers can be phonied, and "prospector fathers" can be hired, especially when the hirer is familiar with the acting community. Romantic entanglements with nobility can be set up and guided along, just as easily as the appearance of a husband s can break off the relationship. But what is to be gained by such charades? Blackmail money? The King of Bohemia had apparently not been asked for any, and Lord St. Simon was too poor to pay for the hiding of his relationship with Flora Miller.

But such men often have more than money at their disposal. Influence and state secrets can be even more valuable to the right people. And such a price for blackmail would assure that the King of Bohemia would hesitate to mention the secrets demanded to any detectives in his employ. In the case of St. Simon, Irene/Hatty's role would be even more profitable, as she could gain secrets both as an intimate, the lord's fiancee, and as an anonymous blackmailer and friend to Flora Miller. The jest of that last situation must have amused the adventuress no end, blackmailing St. Simon to keep word of a former mistress from his blackmailer.

Could Irene Adler and Hatty Doran have been the same woman, some manner of free-lance spy . . . or merely twins separated at birth? Whichever the case, there was certainly a very good reason for Holmes looking "long and earnestly" at St. Simon's cameo of Hatty Doran, perhaps the first likeness he saw of "the woman."

(Printed in Plugs & Dottles, August 1986)