Stages on Life’s Way
Page 75
82. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, pp. 538-39 (Pap. V B 172:12).
83. See Visehog indeholdende udvalgte danske Selskabssange, ed. Andreas Seidelin (Copenhagen: 1814; ASKB 1483), p. 307.
84. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 539 (Pap. V B 172:11).
85. With reference to the following paragraph, see Supplement, p. 539 (Pap. V B 172:10), and to the following two paragraphs, see Supplement, p. 511 (Pap. IV A 170).
86. See Supplement, p. 514 (Pap. V A 110).
87. See Genesis 43:34, where the Danish Bible (18 pr. 1830; ASKB 7) has drukne (drunk), as in the text of Stages, and RSV has “merry.”
88. A salutation used by Roman senators.
89. See Supplement, pp. 511-12 (Pap. IV A 170).
90. See Either/Or, I, pp. 75-78, KW III (SV I 57-60).
91. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 539 (Pap. V B 175:2).
92. For continuation of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 539 (Pap V B 175:2).
93. See G.W.F. Hegel, Vorlesungen über die Aesthetik, III, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe, I-XVIII, ed. Philipp Marheineke et al. (Berlin: 1832-45; ASKB 549-65), X3, pp. 533-34; Sämtliche Werke. Jubiläumsausgabe [J.A.], I-XXVI, ed. Hermann Glockner (Stuttgart: Frommann, 1927-40), XIV, pp. 533-34; The Philosophy of Fine Art, I-IV (tr. of V.A., 1 ed., 1835-38; Kierkegaard had this ed.), tr. F.P.B. Osmaston (London: Bell, 1920), IV, pp. 301-02.
94. For continuation of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 539 (Pap. V B 175:3).
95. See Symposium, 208 e-209 a; Opera, III, pp. 512-15; Heise, II, p. 75; Dialogues, p. 560 (Socrates relating Diotima’s speech):
Well then, she went on, those whose procreancy is of the body turn to woman as the object of their love, and raise a family, in the blessed hope that by doing so they will keep their memory green, ‘through time and through eternity.’ But those whose procreancy is of the spirit rather than of the flesh—and they are not unknown, Socrates—conceive and bear the things of the spirit. And what are they? you ask. Wisdom and all her sister virtues; it is the office of every poet to beget them, and of every artist whom we may call creative.
96. With reference to the following sentence, see Supplement, p. 540 (Pap. V B 175:4).
97. An allusion to Descartes and Hegel and their influence. See Johannes Climacus, or De omnibus dubitandum est, pp. 113-72, KW VII (Pap. IV B 1).
98. There is no subsequent “in the second place.” Various contradictions that make love comic are included in a draft. See Supplement, pp. 540-44 (Pap. V B 174:12-19). Pp. 42-44 constitute “in the second place,” although the designation is not given.
99. See Symposium, 204 e-205 a; Opera, III, pp. 504-05; Heise, II, pp. 67-68; Dialogues, p. 557 (Socrates conversing with Diotima):
Well then, she went on, suppose that, instead of the beautiful, you were being asked about the good. I put it to you, Socrates. What is it that the lover of the good is longing for?
To make the good his own.
Then what will he gain by making it his own?
I can make a better shot at answering that, I said. He’ll gain happiness.
Right, said she, for the happy are happy inasmuch as they possess the good, and since there’s no need for us to ask why men should want to be happy, I think your answer is conclusive.
Absolutely, I agreed.
100. See Horace, Odes, I, 22; Q. Horatii Flacci opera (Leipzig: 1828; ASKB 1248), pp. 55-57; Horace The Odes and Epodes, tr. C. E. Bennett (Loeb, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), p. 65.
101. See Symposium, 189 d-193 b; Opera, III, pp. 468-77; Heise, II, pp. 37-44; Dialogues, pp. 542-45:
First of all I must explain the real nature of man, and the change which it has undergone—for in the beginning we were nothing like we are now. For one thing, the race was divided into three; that is to say, besides the two sexes, male and female, which we have at present, there was a third which partook of the nature of both, and for which we still have a name, though the creature itself is forgotten. For though ‘hermaphrodite’ is only used nowadays as a term of contempt, there really was a man-woman in those days, a being which was half male and half female.
And secondly, gentlemen, each of these beings was globular in shape, with rounded back and sides, four arms and four legs, and two faces, both the same, on a cylindrical neck, and one head, with one face one side and one the other, and four ears, and two lots of privates, and all the other parts to match. They walked erect, as we do ourselves, backward or forward, whichever they pleased, but when they broke into a run they simply stuck their legs straight out and went whirling round and round like a clown turning cartwheels. And since they had eight legs, if you count their arms as well, you can imagine that they went bowling along at a pretty good speed.
. . . And such, gentlemen, were their strength and energy, and such their arrogance, that they actually tried—like Ephialtes and Otus in Homer—to scale the heights of heaven and set upon the gods.
At this Zeus took counsel with the other gods as to what was to be done. They found themselves in rather an awkward position; they didn’t want to blast them out of existence with thunderbolts as they did the giants, because that would be saying good-by to all their offerings and devotions, but at the same time they couldn’t let them get altogether out of hand. At last, however, after racking his brains, Zeus offered a solution.
I think I can see my way, he said, to put an end to this disturbance by weakening these people without destroying them. What I propose to do is to cut them all in half, thus killing two birds with one stone, for each one will be only half as strong, and there’ll be twice as many of them, which will suit us very nicely. They can walk about, upright, on their two legs, and if, said Zeus, I have any more trouble with them, I shall split them up again, and they’ll have to hop about on one.
So saying, he cut them all in half just as you or I might chop up sorb apples for pickling, or slice an egg with a hair. And as each half was ready he told Apollo to turn its face, with the half-neck that was left, toward the side that was cut away—thinking that the sight of such a gash might frighten it into keeping quiet—and then to heal the whole thing up. So Apollo turned their faces back to front, and, pulling in the skin all the way round, he stretched it over what we now call the belly—like those bags you pull together with a string—and tied up the one remaining opening so as to form what we call the navel. As for the creases that were left, he smoothed most of them away, finishing off the chest with the sort of tool a cobbler uses to smooth down the leather on the last, but he left a few puckers round about the belly and the navel, to remind us of what we suffered long ago.
Now, when the work of bisection was complete it left each half with a desperate yearning for the other, and they ran together and flung their arms around each other’s necks, and asked for nothing better than to be rolled into one. So much so, that they began to die of hunger and general inertia, for neither would do anything without the other. And whenever one half was left alone by the death of its mate, it wandered about questing and clasping in the hope of finding a spare half-woman—or a whole woman, as we should call her nowadays—or half a man. . . .
. . . So you see, gentlemen, how far back we can trace our innate love for one another, and how this love is always trying to redintegrate our former nature, to make two into one, and to bridge the gulf between one human being and another. . . .
And so all this to-do is a relic of that original state of ours, when we were whole, and now, when we are longing for and following after that primeval wholeness, we say we are in love. For there was a time, I repeat, when we were one, but now, for our sins, God has scattered us abroad, as the Spartans scattered the Arcadians. Moreover, gentlemen, there is every reason to fear that, if we neglect the worship of the gods, they will split us up again, and then we shall have to go about with our noses sawed asunder, part and counterpart, like the basso-rel
ievos on the tombstones. And therefore it is our duty one and all to inspire our friends with reverence and piety, for so we may ensure our safety and attain that blessed union by enlisting in the army of Love and marching beneath his banners.
102. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph and the following paragraph, see Supplement, pp. 540-41 (Pap V B 175:6).
103. See Acts 2:4.
104. See Matthew 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32.
105. See Johann Karl August Musäus, “Liebestreue,” Volksmärchen der Deutschen, I-V (Vienna: 1815; ASKB 1434-38), III, p. 133. See also Either/Or, II, p. 29, KW IV (SV II 28).
106. The source has not been located.
107. See Thomas Overskou and Anton Ludvig Arnesen, Capriciosa, eller Familien i Nyboder, II; Det Kongelige Theaters Repertoire, 139 (1842), no pagination. The play was first presented at the Royal Theater June 11, 1836.
108. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 541 (Pap. V B 175:9).
109. An allusion to paragraph 26 of the Danish constitution, 1665, which established an absolute monarchy.
110. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 541 (Pap V B 175:11).
111. The reference is to Lycaenium in Longus, Daphnis and Chloe; Longi Pastorale, ed. E. E. Seiler (Leipzig: 1843; ASKB 1128); Longus Hirtengeschichten, tr. Friedrich Jacobs (Stuttgart: 1832; ASKB 1130); Daphnis & Chloe, tr. George Thornley, rev. J. M. Edmonds (Loeb, New York: Putnam, 1916).
112. Surgeon Brause says of his assistant, Saft: “How like the devil he twists and turns so that he ends up either in the pantry or in the wine cellar.” A. G. Oehlenschläger, Sovedrikken, I (Copenhagen: 1808), p. 27 (ed. tr.). See also Fragments, p. 105, KW VII (SV IV 267); Supplement, p. 541 (Pap. V B 175:11).
113. With reference to the following thirteen sentences, see Supplement, pp. 541-42 (Pap. V B 174:13).
114. With reference to the following three paragraphs, see Supplement, pp. 511-12 (Pap. IV A 170).
115. See note 101 above.
116. With reference to the following six sentences, see Supplement, p. 542 (Pap. V B 174:12).
117. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 542 (Pap. V B 174:18).
118. For continuation of the sentence, see Supplement, p. 542 (Pap. V B 175:12).
119. With reference to the following four sentences, see Supplement, pp. 542-43 (Pap. V B 174:14).
120. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 543 (Pap. V B 174:15).
121. The source has not been located. Cf. Either/Or, II, pp. 340-54, KW IV (SV II 306-18).
122. An allusion to the Christology in the Nicene and Athanasian creeds.
123. See Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics, II, 6, 1222 b; Aristoteles graece, I-II, ed. Immanuel Bekker (Berlin: 1831; ASKB 1074-75), II, p. 1222; The Complete Works of Aristotle, I-II, ed. Jonathan Barnes (rev. Oxford tr., Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), II, p. 1936: “Every substance is by nature a sort of principle; therefore each can produce many similar to itself, as man man, animals in general animals, and plants plants.”
124. See Ludvig Holberg, Erasmus Montanus eller Rasmus Berg, III, 6; Danske Skue-Plads, V, no pagination; Comedies by Holberg, tr. Oscar James Campbell, Jr., and Frederic Schenck (New York: American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1935), p. 157 (III, 7):
Jeronimus. Listen, wife: you must know that I am the head of the house, and that I am her father.
Magdelone. You must also know that I am the mistress of the house, and that I am her mother.
Jeronimus. I say that a father is always more than a mother.
Magdelone. And I say not, for there can be no doubt that I am her mother, but whether you—I had better not say any more, for I am getting excited.
See also Supplement, p. 543 (Pap. V B 174:15).
125. With reference to the following paragraph, see Supplement, pp. 543-44 (Pap. V B 174:19).
126. Cf. Genesis 2:24; Mark 10:29.
127. See Matthew 5:28.
128. See Supplement, p. 544 (Pap. V B 176:1).
129. See Ecclesiastes 3:7.
130. See Augustin-Eugène Scribe, Brahma og Bayaderen, I, 1; Repertoire, 93 (1841), no pagination. The play was first presented at the Royal Theater May 15, 1841.
131. Presumably an allusion to Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig’s emphasis on “the living word” (in the Apostles’ Creed and words of institution in the Sacraments), which his adherents called a “matchless discovery.” See, for example, Grundtvig’s review of Jakob Peter Mynster, Om Begrebet af den Christelige Dogmatik, in Maanedsskrift for Christendom og Historie, ed. Jacob Christian Lindberg, I, 1831, p. 609 (ed. tr.):
What I nevertheless in the most urgent way must and will request of him, as well as of all Christian pastors and theologians in Denmark and Norway, is only that they will give my explication of the independent universal validity of the confession of faith the keen kindly disposed attention undeniably deserved by a discovery that promises Christ’s Kingdom on earth amendment of its bonds and opens the brightest prospects, not only of victory over all enemies, but of an increasing enlightenment and free development of power the world will be compelled to call matchless.
For another use of “matchless,” see Grundtvig, “Blik paa Kirken i det første Aarhundrede,” Theologisk Maanedsskrift, ed. N.F.S. Grundtvig and Andreas Gottlob Rudelbach, X, 1827, pp. 3-4.
See also, for example, Postscript, KW XII (SV VII 23-33); JP V 5089-91, 5356 (Pap. I A 60-62; II A 300); Letters, Letter 120a, KW XXV.
132. See I Timothy 2:14.
133. With reference to the following ten sentences, see Supplement, p. 544 (Pap. V B 176:5).
134. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph, see Supplement, p. 544 (Pap. V B 176:6).
135. See Herodotus, History, VII, 34-35; Die Geschichten des Herodotos, I-II, tr. Friedrich Lange (Berlin: 1811; ASKB 1117), II, pp. 157-58; Herodotus, I-IV, tr. A. D. Godley (Loeb, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981-82), III, pp. 347-49:
Beginning then from Abydos they whose business it was made bridges across to that headland, the Phoenicians one of flaxen cables, and the Egyptians the second, which was of papyrus. From Abydos to the opposite shore it is a distance of seven furlongs. But no sooner had the strait been bridged than a great storm swept down and brake and scattered all that work.
When Xerxes heard of that, he was very angry, and gave command that the Hellespont be scourged with three hundred lashes, and a pair of fetters be thrown into the sea; nay, I have heard ere now that he sent branders with the rest to brand the Hellespont. This is certain, that he charged them while they scourged to utter words outlandish and presumptuous: “Thou bitter water,” they should say, “our master thus punishes thee, because thou didst him wrong albeit he had done thee none. Yea, Xerxes the king will pass over thee, whether thou wilt or no; it is but just that no man offers thee sacrifice, for thou art a turbid and a briny river.” Thus he commanded that the sea should be punished, and that they who had been overseers of the bridging of the Hellespont should be beheaded.
136. See Shakespeare, Othello, V, 2; William Shakspeare’s Tragiske Værker, I-IX, tr. Peter Foersom and Peter Fredenk Wulff (Copenhagen: 1807-25; ASKB 1889-96), VII, pp. 180-204; W. Shakspeare’s dramatische Werke, I-VIII, tr. Ernst Ortlepp (Stuttgart: 1838-40; ASKB 1874-81), V, pp. 141-60; Shakspeare’s dramatische Werke, I-XII, tr. August Wilhelm v. Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck (Berlin: 1839-40; ASKB 1883-88), XII, pp. 117-34; The Complete Works of Shakespeare, ed. George Lyman Kittredge (Boston: Ginn, 1936), pp. 1280-84.
137. See Kruse, I, 6, pp. 16-25; Bleiler, pp. 96-102.
138. See Aristophanes, The Clouds; Des Aristophanes Werke, I-III, ed. Johann Gustav Droysen (Berlin: 1835; ASKB 1052-54), III, pp. 23-124; Aristophanes, I-III, tr. Benjamin Bickley Rogers (Loeb, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979-82), I, pp. 266-401. See also The Concept of Irony, with Continual Reference to Socrates, KW II (SV XIII 214-41).
139. With reference to
the following three paragraphs, see Supplement, pp. 544-45 (Pap V B 178:6).
140. A loan word from German with a Danish ending and modified spelling, gevaldig in modern Danish.
141. With reference to the remainder of the paragraph and the following paragraph, see Supplement, p. 545 (Pap. V B 177:3).
142. A play on a line from J. H. Wessel, Kierlighed uden Strømper, I, 2, V, 4, Johan Herman Wessels samtlige Skrivter, I-II (Copenhagen: 1787), I, p. 42 (ed. tr.):
Everyone who sees the smoke ascend
(Smoke is my aria)
Must think, if not say,
There is fire where it comes from.
143. See Holberg, Den Stundesløse, II, 1; Danske Skue-Plads, V, no pagination; The Fussy Man, Four Plays by Holberg, tr. Henry Alexander (Princeton: Princeton University Press, for the American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1946), p. 26. In response to Vielgeschrey’s boast about his little black hen, Christoffer, reading the record book, says: “It’s just as you say, sir, forty eggs. What else she has given is not put down.”
144. See Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, II, 36-37; Diogenis Laertii de vitis philosophorum, I-II (Leipzig: 1833; ASKB 1109), I, pp. 77-78; Diogen Laërtses filosofiske Historie, I-II, tr. Børge Riisbrigh (Copenhagen: 1812; ASKB 1110-11), I, pp. 72-73; Diogenes Laertius, I-II, tr. R. D. Hicks (Loeb, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979-80), I, p. 167:
When Xanthippe first scolded him and then drenched him with water, his rejoinder was, “Did I not say that Xanthippe’s thunder would end in rain?” When Alcibiades declared that the scolding of Xanthippe was intolerable, “Nay, I have got used to it,” said he, “as to the continued rattle of a windlass. And you do not mind the cackle of geese.” “No,” replied Alcibiades, “but they furnish me with eggs and goslings.” “And Xanthippe,” said Socrates, “is the mother of my children.” When she tore his coat off his back in the market-place and his acquaintances advised him to hit back, “Yes, by Zeus,” said he, “in order that while we are sparring each of you may join in with ‘Go it, Socrates!’ ‘Well done, Xanthippe!’ ” He said he lived with a shrew, as horsemen are fond of spirited horses, “but just as, when they have mastered these, they can easily cope with the rest, so I in the society of Xanthippe shall learn to adapt myself to the rest of the world.”