Soren Kierkegaard

tation was not a little lapdog but an entire “horse market” that was situated
directly outside Boesen’s windows, and there was also “continuing traffic
through the house from early morning until late in the evening.” So it was
not so strange that Boesen already felt that he needed a vacation. He had
recently lost his beloved mother; his elderly father had had a fall and was
bedridden; and to top it all off, the young curate was busier than the Devil:
“On Sundays I am generally in my clerical vestments from nine o’clock in
morning until half past seven in the evening; first confession, then commu-
nion after the parish pastor has preached, then I have to preach at the hospi-
tal, then to vespers in the main church....Ihave an odd congregation at
the hospital chapel: a couple of harmless old women, some half-dotty
drunks, usually a couple of members of the count’s family,... and then a
few townspeople. The homilies I give at confession make more of an im-
pression on me than on anyone else.” His colleague was a tough old cleric,
distant and irritable, and he made Boesen do the bulk of the boring and
bothersome paperwork. Even so, Boesen assured Kierkegaard that he was
“glad and grateful that I became a pastor.” Those were the days when it
was still a calling.
In his previous letter Kierkegaard had written that if Boesen ran into any
difficulties that he could help resolve, he should just let him know. Now
Boesen asked Kierkegaard to visit his bedridden father and then to convey
his greetings to his fiance ́e, Louise Sophie Caroline Holtermann, whom the
lonely curate would come to Copenhagen and fetch as soon as he was fin-
ished with this year’s confirmation class. She truly made Boesen “happy and
proud of her every day, and happier with every letter she writes to me; it
was really a shame for you that you did not get to know her before I did.”
There was a little hint of defiant glee, a sort of tit for tat, in this final line,
whichalmostseemsasifitcouldcontinueoninamorepotentvein,echoing
the correspondence between the two friends in the days when Kierkegaard
had been down in Berlin, directing Boesen’s Copenhagen comings and
goings in the service of a higher eros. The day after writing these lines,
Boesen had cooled off, however, and he added: “Can’t you teach me the
secret of formulating a proper theme for a sermon? Take care of yourself!
Dear friend,thank you foreverything good! Fulfillthe threerequests soon!”
Apparently Boesen’s plea did not have an instantaneous effect on Kier-
kegaard, who waited more than a month, until April 12, before getting
around to replying to “The Reverend Mr. Pastor E. Boesen, Resident Cu-
rate,” whose difficult handwriting he commented upon, as usual: “This is
certainly not handwriting, but tiny pinpricks on extremely thin paper; I
could use a microscope to read it.” Kierkegaard had to disappoint Boesen
withrespecttoatleasttwoofhis threewishes:HehadmetLouisebychance