Stages on Life’s Way

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Stages on Life’s Way Page 74

by Søren Kierkegaard


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  NOTES

  TITLE PAGE

  TITLE. See Supplement, p. 516 (Pap. VI B 5).

  Hilarius Bookbinder. For a special reference to the author’s name, see Corsair Affair, p. 111 and note 94, KW XIII.

  LECTORI BENEVOLO! and “IN VINO VERITAS”

  1. “To the kindly disposed reader,” a common Latin heading in learned works. See Supplement, pp. 516-17 (Pap. VI B 6).

  2. Cf. Sirach 10:10.

  3. See Pap. III A 201.

  4. See Supplement, p. 517 (Pap. VI B 7:1).

  5. In February 1845, Israel Salomon Levin solicited contributions from about 130 persons for Album af nulevende danske Mænds og Qvinders Haandskrifter (Copenhagen: 1846; ASKB 1955) designed especially to give school pupils practice in reading handwriting. See Historical Introduction, p. ix and note 8; Supplement, p. 516 (Pap. VI B 6); Letters, Letters 122-23, KW XXV.

  6. A line by Per, not Henrich, in Ludvig Holberg, Jacob von Tyboe Eller Den stortalende Soldat, I, 4; Den Danske Skue-Plads, I-VII (Copenhagen: 1788; ASKB 1566-67), III, no pagination.

  7. A church in the old shipping town of Christianshavn on Amager, an island linked to Sjælland by the bridge Langebro and the drawbridge Knippelsbro.

  8. See Supplement, p. 517 (Pap. V B 192).

  9. See Supplement, pp. 516-17 (Pap. VI B 7:4, 8:2).

  10. Literally, “in wine truth.” The piece is patterned on Plato’s Symposium (sometimes translated as The Banquet; Latin: Convivium). See Platonis quae exstant opera, I-XI, ed. Friedrich Ast (Leipzig: 1819-32; ASKB 1144-54), III, pp. 429-548, esp. pp. 440-41; Udvalgte Dialoger af Platon, I-VIII, tr. Carl Johan Heise (Copenhagen: 1830-59; ASKB 1164-67, 1169 [I-VII]), II, pp. 1-104, esp. pp. 12-13; The Collected Dialogues of Plato, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), pp. 527-74, esp. p. 531 (176 e-177 a): “Very well, then, said Eryximachus, since it is agreed that we need none of us drink more than we think is good for us, I also propose that . . . we spend our evening in discussion of a subject which, if you think fit, I am prepared to name [love].” See Supplement, pp. 511-13 (Pap. IV A 170; V A 82).

  11. Literally, “by himself.” See Supplement, p. 517 (Pap. V B 155, p. 265): “Report ad se ipsum [to himself].”

  12. G. C. Lichtenberg, “Ueber Physiognomie wider die Physiognomen,” Georg Christoph Lichtenberg’s vermischte Schriften, I-IX (Göttingen: 1800-06; ASKB 1764-72), III, p. 479. See “The Activity of a Traveling Esthetician,” Corsair Affair, p. 40, KW XIII (SV XIII 424); Postscript, KW XII (SV VII 244).

  13. Two Danish words, Forord and Forerindring, which is used here, are usually translated as “preface.” Forerindring, a word very rarely used now in Danish (therefore marked with a comet sign in the large Danish dictionary, Ordbog over det danske Sprog), literally means “prerecollection.” Not only is the Preface here a discussion of recollection and a preface to a recollection, but the Nook of Eight Paths portion is also itself a recollection. See Supplement, p. 518 (Pap. V B 155).

  14. See Judges 14:14; JP I 875 (Pap. II A 513). Kierkegaard’s Danish is a direct translation of the Hebrew and retains the play on “eat” and “eating,” which is lost in the Danish translation of his time.

  15. For continuation of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 521 (Pap. V B 186:1).

  16. On the distinction between memory and recollection, see, for example, Plato, Philebus, 34 a-c; Opera, VIII, pp. 56-57; Dialogues, p. 1112:

  SOCRATES: Memory it would, in my opinion, be right to call the preservation of sensation.

  PROTARCHUS: Quite so.

  SOCRATES: Then by ‘recollection’ we mean, do we not, something different from memory?

  PROTARCHUS: I suppose so.

  SOCRATES: I will suggest the point of difference.

  PROTARCHUS: What is it?

  SOCRATES: When that which has been experienced by the soul in common with the body is recaptured, so far as may be, by and in the soul itself apart from the body, then we speak of ‘recollecting’ something. Is that not so?

  PROTARCHUS: Undoubtedly.

  SOCRATES: And further, when the soul that has lost the memory of a sensation or what it has learned resumes that memory within itself and goes over the old ground, we regularly speak of these processes as ‘recollections.’

  17. With reference to the following three sentences, see Supplement, p. 522 (Pap. V B 159). With reference to the following eleven sentences, see Supplement, pp. 518-20 (Pap. V B 155).

  18. See F. H. Jacobi, Beylagen zu den Briefen über die Lehre des Spinoz
a, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi’s Werke, I-VI (Leipzig: 1812-25; ASKB 1722-28), IV2, p. 68.

  19. The Latin callere as an intransitive verb means “to have thick skin” and as a transitive verb, “to understand completely.”

  20. With reference to the following two sentences, see Supplement, p. 523 (Pap. V B 158).

  21. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 524 (Pap. V B 186:4). With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, pp. 523-24 (Pap. V B 160:8).

  22. See Plutarch, “Marcus Cato,” 27, 1, Lives; Plutark’s Levnetsbeskrivelser, I-IV, tr. Stephan Tetens (Copenhagen: 1800-11; ASKB 1197-1200), III, p. 458; Plutarch’s Lives, I-XI, tr. Bernadotte Perrin (Loeb, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968-84), II, p. 383: “And in one thing he was even more savage, namely, in adding to his vote on any question whatsoever these words: ‘In my opinion, Carthage must be destroyed.’”

  23. According to a royal decree of June 29, 1753, the newly established royal orphanage was given a lottery monopoly; the drawing of numbers was done by some of the orphans.

  24. Thor, the thunder god in Norse mythology, had a hammer (Miølner) with the remarkable feature of returning to him when it was thrown.

  25. See Cicero, De oratore, II, lxxxvi, 350-51; M. Tullii Ciceronis opera omnia, I-IV and index, ed. Johann August Ernesti (Halle: 1756-57; ASKB 1224-29), I, pp. 501-02; Cicero De Oratore, I-II, tr. E. W. Sutton (Loeb, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1942), I, pp. 463-65 (Antony speaking): ‘“I have given you my view in regard to the discovery and the arrangement of topics; I will also add something on the subject of memory, in order to lighten the task of Crassus and to leave him nothing else to discuss except the method of elaborating these subjects.’. . . ‘But to return to the subject,’ he continued, ‘I am not myself as clever as Themistocles was, so as to prefer the science of forgetting to that of remembering; and I am grateful to the famous Simonides of Ceos, who is said to have first invented the science of mnemonics.’” For a continuation of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 524 (Pap. V B 160:11).

  26. The Christian evangelical counsels or counsels of perfection are traditionally chastity, obedience, and renunciation of personal property.

  27. See Supplement, p. 524 (Pap. V B 160:13).

  28. This is the case of the young man in Repetition (KW VI; SV III 173-264) in relation to Constantin Constantius.

  29. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, pp. 524-25 (Pap. V B 156:2).

  30. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 525 (Pap. V B 169:1).

  31. See Supplement, p. 525 (Pap. V B 169:2).

  32. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 525 (Pap. V B 169:3).

  33. See Supplement, pp. 511-12 (Pap. IV A 170).

  34. With reference to the remainder of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 525 (Pap. V B 169:4).

  35. With reference to the following three paragraphs, see Supplement, pp. 525-28 (Pap. V B 161-65).

  36. Gribs-Skov, about twenty miles northwest of Copenhagen, is the largest and most beautiful forest in north Sjælland.

  37. See Supplement, pp. 503, 511 (Pap. IV A 81, 170).

  38. The Latin root of “triviality” means “three paths” or “three roads.”

  39. A version of an expression attributed to Caesar Augustus. See Suetonius, “The Deified Augustus,” 25, The Lives of the Caesars; Caji Suetonii Tranquilli Tolv første Romerske Keiseres Levnetsbeskrivelse, I-II, tr. Jacob Baden (Copenhagen: 1802-03; ASKB 1281), I, p. 109; Suetonius, I-II, tr. J. C. Rolfe (Loeb, New York: Macmillan, 1914), I, p. 159: “He thought nothing less becoming in a well-trained leader than haste and rashness, and, accordingly, favourite sayings of his were: ‘More haste, less speed’; ‘Better a safe commander than a bold’; and ‘That is done quickly enough which is done well enough.’”

  40. See John 3:8.

  41. See Either/Or, I, p. 29, KW III (SV I 13-14).

  42. Ovid, Tristia, III, iv, 25-26; P. Ovidii Nasonis quae supersunt, I-III, ed. Antonius Richter (Leipzig: 1828; ASKB 1265), III, p. 207; Ovid Tristia Ex Ponto, tr. Arthur Leslie Wheeler (Loeb, New York: Putnam, 1924), p. 117: “Let me tell thee, he who hides well his life, lives well; each man ought to remain within his proper position.”

  43. With reference to the remainder of the sentence and the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 528 (Pap. V B 166:1).

  44. For continuation of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 528 (Pap. V B 186:7).

  45. With reference to the remainder of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 528 (Pap. V B 166:2).

  46. With reference to the following paragraph, see Supplement, pp. 529-33 (Pap. V B 167-68, 171:1).

  47. Challenged to drain a drinking horn, Thor did not realize, until he was told later, that the end of it was in the sea. See Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, “Thors Reise til Jothunheim,” IV, 34-40, V, 24-29, Nordiske Digte (Copenhagen: 1807; ASKB 1599), pp. 86-88, 111-12; Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda, tr. Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (New York: American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1916), pp. 63-64, 67.

  48. See Exodus 19:12-13.

  49. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Don Juan, tr. Laurids Kruse (Copenhagen: 1807), I, 18, p. 57; Don Giovanni, tr. Ellen H. Bleiler (New York: Dover, 1964), p. 129.

  50. With reference to the following seven paragraphs, see Supplement, p. 534 (Pap. V B 172:1).

  51. The equator. See Letters, Letter 218, KW XXV.

  52. With reference to the following two paragraphs, see Supplement, pp. 511-12 (Pap. IV A 170).

  53. Originally there were seven: Johannes, Victor Eremita, Constantin Constantius, and three with the designations of Recollection’s Unhappy Lover, Fashion Designer, and Young Man. The seventh is the narrator. See Supplement, p. 534 (Pap. V B 172:1). Johannes the Seducer is from Either/Or, I, of which Victor Eremita is the editor. Constantin Constantius and the Young Man are from Repetition. The Fashion Designer is a new character. Judge William, whom they visit after the banquet, is from Either/Or, II.

  54. With reference to the following clause, see Supplement, p. 534 (Pap. V B 187:1).

  55. For continuation of the sentence and with reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, pp. 534-55 (Pap. V B 187:4).

  56. Presumably the café of Madame Fousanée, Østergade 70.

  57. See Luke 14:19-20.

  58. An allusion to the line “Speak now or forever hold your peace” in the marriage banns or the wedding service.

  59. See Proverbs 15:23.

  60. Cf. “Tischchen deck dich, Goldesel, und Knüppel aus dem Sack,” Kinderund Haus-Märchen. Gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm, I-III (Berlin: 1819-22; ASKB 1425-27), no. 36, I, pp. 182-84; “The Wishing-Table, the Gold-Ass, and the Cudgel in the Sack,” The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales, tr. Margaret Hunt, rev., cor. and compl. James Stern (New York: Pantheon, 1944), pp. 180-86.

  61. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 535 (Pap. V B 187:5).

  62. For continuation of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 535 (Pap. V B 187:6).

  63. A Danish expression used by the host or hostess after a guest has expressed thanks for a meal. Literally, “May it be of good to you.”

  64. Cf. Ecclesiastes 1:8.

  65. Literally, “from the temple” or “on the spot,” “immediately.” In the Danish Bible of the time (18 pr., 1830; ASKB 7), the Greek εὐθúς is translated as strax (immediately).

  66. With reference to the remainder of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 535 (Pap. V B 187:8).

  67. See Supplement, p. 514 (Pap. V A 94). Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872), Danish poet, mythologist, historian, politician, and preacher, was also the inspiration for the Danish Folk High-school movement. His Brage-Snak (Copenhagen: 1844; ASKB 1548), a volume of Greek and Scandinavian myths, has “for Ladies and Gentlemen” in the title. The title itself literally means “Skaldic Talk,” narratives about the Norse and Greek gods. Brage in Norse mythology is the son of Odin and is a go
d of words rather than of deeds. Brag means “poem,” and Brage is the deification of Odin’s gift of poetry to the skalds. Brage-Snak has come to mean “obscure outpourings,” “elaborate outpourings.”

  68. With reference to the following four sentences, see Supplement, pp. 535-36 (Pap. V B 187:9).

  69. In Greek mythology there were nine Muses and three Graces.

  70. See Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe, Faust, I, Auerbach’s cellar sc., Goethe’s Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand, I-LX (Stuttgart, Tübingen: 1828-42; ASKB 1641-68 [I-LV]), XII, pp. 114-15; Faust, tr. Bayard Taylor (New York: Random House, 1950), pp. 80-81.

  71. See Seneca, “On Providence,” III, 10; L. Annaeus Seneca’s Werke, I-IV, tr. J. Moser (Stuttgart: 1828-35; ASKB 1280-80c), III, p. 351; Seneca Moral Essays, I-III, tr. John W. Basore (Loeb, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958-70), I, p. 21.

  72. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 536 (Pap. V B 187:11).

  73. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 536 (Pap. V B 172:3).

  74. A draft names Ordrup, about five miles north of Copenhagen. See Supplement, p. 536 (Pap. V B 172:3).

  75. With reference to the following three paragraphs, see Supplement, pp. 536-37 (Pap. V B 172:7), and to the following eight paragraphs, see Supplement, pp. 511-12 (Pap. IV A 170).

  76. See Kruse, I, 20, p. 61; Bleiler, p. 133.

  77. See Supplement, pp. 536-37 (Pap. V B 172:7).

  78. See Either/Or, I, pp. 49, 73, KW III (SV I 33, 55).

  79. See, for example, Philosophical Fragments, or A Fragment of Philosophy, p. 8, KW VII (SV IV 178); Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions, KW X (SV V 228).

  80. See Kruse, I, 21, p. 63, where the Italian text is rendered as “Every one of us is free.”

  81. For continuation of the paragraph and with reference to the following nine paragraphs, see Supplement, pp. 537-38 (Pap. V B 187:13).

 

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