Soren Kierkegaard

Althoughthislastdetailconcerninghischoiceofclothingshouldproba-
bly be ascribed to an excessive enthusiasm for fiction, the recollections of
Kierkegaard’s contemporaries are bursting with sketches taken from the
street. Thus in 1844 Kierkegaard wrote that even though “[I speak] every
day with about fifty people of all ages, I nonetheless feel obligated to be
able to recall immediately what each person I speak with had said the last
time we spoke together and the time before that. Similarly, every person
who is the object of my attention—his words, the tendency of his
thoughts—instantly becomes vividly present to me as soon as I see him,
evenifithasbeenalongwhilesinceIlastsawhim.”Naturally,itisimpossi-
ble to verify the numerical accuracy of this assertion, but even if we (yet
again) discount every mythologizing attempt to improve on reality, Kier-
kegaardthestreet philosopherremainsahistoricalreality.FrederikNielsen,a
pastor from Funen, provided us with this refreshing description of the re-
nowned author of the pseudonyms: “It was still in the period of pseud-
onyms, although everyone knew who the author was, and the thin little
man, whom you could meet one moment at Østerport and the next on
the entirely opposite side of town, apparently a carefree peripatetic, was
recognizedbyeveryone.”
And there seems to have been no end to the number of people who
strolled with their subsequently-so-famous countryman. Indeed, Peter
ChristianZahleassuresusthatthemajorityof“Copenhagen’seminentfig-
ures”walked“arminarm”withthemagister:“Statesmen,actors,philoso-
phers, poets, old and young—in brief, the most various sorts of people—
can pridethemselves on havingknown Søren Kierkegaard.” Oneof these
notableswasthefamouschoreographerAugustBournonville,whorelated
thathe had“oftenhad thepleasureofwalking withhimand ofrefreshing
myself from his inexhaustible font of wit and perspicacity.” Bournonville
hadnever gotaround toreadingOn the Concept of Irony, butinthe course
oftheirstrollshelearnedabitofwhathemissed:“Ilearnedthismuch:that
ironyisnotsynonymouswithridicule,mockery,orbitterness,butisonthe
contrary an important element in our spiritual existence.” Indeed, Bour-
nonvillenowbelievedhehadcometotheunderstandingthatironyis“the
smile through the tears, which prevents us from becoming lachrymose.”
Kierkegaard also went on long walks with the actor Christen Rosenkilde,
whosedaughterJuliewouldrecallhowthetwoincongruousfigures—“Fa-
therinhislargegreatcoat”and“Kierkegaard,limpingalongwithhisshort
trouserlegsandswinginghislittlecane”—onedayindulgedtheircommon
gleeinexperimentation:“Fatherwentuptoapoorwomanandgavehera
five-rixdollarbill,whereuponheandKierkegaarddelightedinhersurprise;
and there was the time they found a two-rixdollar coin and gave it to a