Soren Kierkegaard

ically of Mrs. Schlegel’s division between her husband and the sweetheart
of her youth: “I cannot say [whether this] played a role in Schlegel’s seeking
a post in the West Indies. His wife said nothin gabout that.”
Others had also sought out Mrs. Schlegel in the period just after her
husband’s death. Almost simultaneously with the condolence letters came
direct requests for permission to speak with the important widow regarding
the curious romance of her youth. At first she was a bit reserved, but as the
only survivor of the three people involved, she also felt obligated to speak.
One of those granted an interview was Robert Neiiendam, an actor and
historian of the theater, who describes her as a “small, amiable, and very
attractive lady with kind eyes, which must once have been quite lively.”
Her diction was precise and her manner was tactful, bearin gthe stamp of
many years in diplomatic circles, so when Neiiendam one day asked
whether a picture of Kierkegaard in a volume of literary history resembled
him, he naturally received a diplomatic reply: “Both yes and no,” she an-
swered. “Kierkegaard’s external appearance was easy to caricature, and peo-
ple exploited that.” It seemed to Neiiendam that Kierkegaard had always
been portrayed as quite stiff-backed, but to this Mrs. Schlegel merely re-
plied: “Yes, he was somewhat high-shouldered and his head tilted forward
a bit, probably from all that readin gand writin gat his desk.”
A year after her husband died Mrs. Schlegel moved to a house on Alham-
bravej in Frederiksberg, where she lived with her brother Oluf Christian,
eight years her senior, who for a time had served as receiver of customs at
Saint Croix. In 1898 she contacted the librarian Raphael Meyer with an
offer to recount what “an old lady” (as she put it) had to report. In the
winter of 1898-99 and throu ghout the followin gsprin gMeyer called on
her in her home every week and immediately thereafter wrote down the
contents of their conversations. After her death in 1904, Meyer cast his
notes into book form and oversaw their publication asKierkegaardian Papers:
The Engagement; Published on Behalf of Mrs. Regine Schlegel. She was, Meyer
tells us, extremely pleased at the growing interest, both in Denmark and
now abroad, that was directed toward her former fiance ́—even if, in her
opinion, the French would never be able to understand him! Nor could
she acquiesce in the skepticism with which the Danish clergy viewed Kier-
kegaard. Indeed, on one occasion, when she had discovered by chance that
a Copenhagen ecclesiastic was ignorant of Kierkegaard, she had clenched
her little fist and put him in his place: “That is unacceptable in an educated
man in the country where Kierkegaard was born and worked, and especially
so in a pastor of the Danish People’s Church.” She was certain that after
this the neglectful pastor got busy on his reading.