three of Hebrew, three of mathematics, five of history, six of Greek, six of
composition, and thirteen of Latin. When Søren Aabye went up for his
matriculationexaminationsinLatinhewasresponsibleformorethan11,000
lines of poetry and 1,250 pages of prose. It goes without saying that there
was plenty of work to be done, and because Søren Aabye pulled his weight
hewasrewarded,astheyearswentby,withthehonorofhelpingHeadmas-
ter Nielsen in correcting the Latin compositions of the other pupils. The
required curriculu min Greek was not as extensive, but still quite consider-
able: almost 10,000 lines of poetry and more than 300 pages of prose—plus
the Gospel of John! Søren Aabye’s Greek teacher was Peter Christian, and
Welding recalled the way in which Søren Aabye “made things difficult on
various occasions by bringing his relationship to his brother into the class-
roo msituation.” The required curriculu min Hebrew was the whole of
Genesis and fifteen chapters of Exodus. We have no details regarding any
of the other subjects excepting the titles of the textbooks used, fro mwhich
we may surely conclude that the pupils had to know them by heart. With
onlytwohoursofFrencheachweek,thepupilscouldscarcelyhaveaccom-
plished much more than attain reasonable competence in reading. Kierke-
gaard did quite well, though in later years he would read Pascal in German
translation. English language and literature had not yet become a school
subject, although a “man by the name of Asp,” who had written an entire
book entitledTightening the Requirements for the Matriculation Examinations,
wasbusywithplanstoinstituteobligatoryinstructioninspokenandwritten
English, which “would be extremely unpleasant for me,” a fearful Søren
Aabye wrote to Peter Christian in a letter of March 25, 1829. He got off
with onlyascare, however,so in lateryears he had tomakedo withShake-
speare in German “because I myself don’t read English.”Two Weddings and a Fire
While Søren Aabye was working his way through the mountain of books,
hissistersNicolineChristineandPetreaSeverinehadspenttheirtimefalling
in love. The sisters’ chosen beaux were the brothers Johan Christian and
HenrikFerdinandLund,atextiledealer andabankemployee,respectively.
It must have pleased Michael Kierkegaard to see that his daughters had
chosen husbands whose line of work reflected his own interests, the textile
tradeandfinance.ButforPeterChristian,NielsAndreas,andSørenAabye,
itwastheLunds’middlebrother,PeterWilhelmLund,whowasofgreatest
interest. He had also received his schooling at the Borgerdyd School, had
entered the university four years before Peter Christian, had studied medi-22 {1813–1834}