“I Came Close to Dancing with Them”
Kierkegaard was a Copenhagener with a capital C, and he knew the city
like the palm of his hand, or perhaps even better. True, when he was in
Berlin, he found it “salutary” not to be eternally “sneaking around in the
nooksandcranniesofafamilarcity,whereonealwaysknowsthewayout,”
butitwasnotlongbeforehelongedtoreturntothenooksandcranniesof
Copenhagen.SurvivingbillsfromtheshoemakerSølverborgattestinplain
arithmetictothefactthatKierkegaardliterallygroundhiswayaroundtown.
Heusedaspecialsortofbootswithinlaidsolesofcork,surelytominimize
wearandtearonhisweaklegs,butthesecorksoleswerealsoentirelyappro-
priate for this self-styled “police spy,” who could creep soundlessly about
hiscityoncushionedfeet.Theywereexpensive.Thebootscosteightrix-
dollars,andinthemonthofOctober1849alonehehadthemresoledand
reheelednofewerthanfivetimes.
And not many people have included Copenhagen’s streets, lanes, and
alleysintheir writingsasdidKierkegaard:Practicallyevery oneofthemis
there—the entire alphabet of them, from Amagerbro to Østerport—and
theyareputtoverycarefuluse.Forexample,whenKierkegaardhasaman
settleinPistolstræde[Danish:“PistolLane”]“soastohavesolitudeinwhich
to invent a new religion,” his Copenhagen readers are immediately made
awarethatitmustbeaprettysorryreligion.Therewerenarrowlaneswhere
thehousesfacingthelaneweretypicallyinhabitedbythehardworkingpetty
bourgeoisie,whilethesideandrearbuildingshousedincrediblepoverty;of
these lanes, it is Badestuestrædet[Danish: “Bathhouse Lane”] that Kierke-
gaardmentionsmostfrequently.Itwasinthislanethatheimaginedthefate
of a fantastic female figure, the course of whose life formed the following
sad parabola: “formerly empress over the extensive commonlands of love
and titular queen of all theexaggerations of foolery, now Mrs. Petersen at
thecornerofBathhouseLane.”
Afewloosescrapsofpaperfrom1842containsketchesfor“Pagesfrom
a Street Inspector’s Diary,” including such pieces as “The Tale of the Rat
WhoBecame aMisanthrope,”and “TheStory ofaGutter Plank”(which
was projected as a grandiose drama, since we can read the word “deluge”
asasortofstagedirection).ThefollowingyearKierkegaardhadtheideaof
depictinghiscityunderthetitle“CrossSections”or“FromEveryAngle,”
whichwas tobea “sombersketchof lifeinCopenhagen asitis atvarious
hours of the day”: “nine o’clock, little children go to school; ten o’clock,
the maidservants; one o’clock, the fashionable world.” The idea was that
“life takes on different colors at different times, just as water is colored by