Kierkegaard's Writings, XIII: The "Corsair Affair" and Articles Related to the Writings

373 Pages·1982·26.29 MB·English

by  Goldschmidt

THE CORSAIR AFFAIR
KIERKEGAARD'S WRITINGS, XIII

KIERKEGAARD
THE CORSAIR AFFAIR
AND ARTICLES RELATED TO
THE WRITINGS
Edited and Translated
with Introduction and Notes by
Howard V. Hong and
Edna H. Hong
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON NEW JERSEY
I
Copyright © 1982 by Howard V. Hong
Published by Princeton University Press,
41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
All Rights Reserved
Third printing, and first paperback printing, 2009
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-691-14075-9
The Library of Congress has cataloged the cloth edition of this book as follows
Kierkegaard, Søren Aabye, 1813–1855.
The Corsair affair.
(Kierkegaard’s writings ; 13)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Kierkegaard, Søren Aabye, 1813–1855—Addresses,
essays, lectures. 2. Corsaren—Addresses, essays,
lectures. 3. Goldschmidt, Meïr Aron, 1819–1887—
Addresses, essays, lectures. 4. Møller, Peder Ludvig,
1814–1865—Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Hong,
Howard Vincent, 1912– . II. Hong, Edna Hatlestad,
1913– . III. Title. IV. Series: Kierkegaard, Søren
Aabye, 1813–1855. Works. English. 1978 ; 13.
B4376.K48 1981 198’.9 80-7538
ISBN 0-691-07246-9
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
Designed by Frank Mahood
press.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4
CONTENTS
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION Vll
CHRONOLOGY XXXlX
I. Articles, 1842-1851
l
PUBLIC CONFESSION
3
WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF EITHER/OR
13
A WORD OF THANKS TO PROFESSOR HEIBERG
17.
A LITTLE EXPLANATION
22
AN EXPLANATION AND A LITTLE MORE
24
A CURSORYOBSERVATIONCONCERNINGA
DETAIL IN DON GIOV ANN!
28
THE ACTIVITY OF A TRAVELING ESTHETICIAN AND
HOW HE STILL HAPPENED TO PAY FOR THE DINNER
38
THE DIALECTICAL RESULT OF A LITERARY POLICE ACTION
47
AN OPEN LETTER
51
II. Addenda
61
VI Contents
A LETTER
63
ANOTHER LETTER
66
[A LETTER]
69
LITERARY QUICKSILVER
73
SUPPLEMENT 87
Key to References 88
P. L. M0ller, M. Goldschmidt, The Corsair, and Related
Publications, 1841-1848 91
From The Corsair, 1841-1845 91
"A Visit in Sor0," by P. L. M0ller 96
"To Mr. Frater Taciturnus," by P. L. M0ller 104
From The Corsair, 1846-1848 105
From Mei'r Goldschmidt's Autobiography 138
Selected Entries from Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers
Pertaining to 153
Articles 153
The Corsair Affair 157
Drafts of Writings for Possible Publication 157
Journal Entries 208
"An Open Letter" 241
EDITORIAL APPENDIX 265
Acknowledgments 267
Collation of Articles in the Danish Editions of
Kierkegaard's Collected Works 269
NOTES 271
309
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
INDEX 311
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
THE CORSAIR AFFAIR
"I hope that someone will soon write a fully documented his
tory of the Corsair affair," declared W. H. Auden a decade
ago. 1 In an elemental way, the present volume is intended to
be a fulfillment of that hope. Instead of being a documented
history, it is in large part a collection of the most pertinent
documents by the main figures: S0ren Kierkegaard (1813-
1855), Peder Ludvig M0ller (1814-1865), and Melr Gold
schmidt (1819-1887).2
The Corsair affair has been called the "most renowned con
troversy in Danish literary history. "3 The immediate occasion
was literary-P. L. M01ler's review ofKierkegaard's Stages on
Life's Way (see Supplement, pp. 96-104)-and those involved
were writers, but the issues were more ethical, social, and
philosophical than literary. Similarly, the consequences of the
controversy for the participants were ethical, philosophical,
and religious, with appropriate effects upon their writing.
The relation between Goldschmidt, the editor of The Cor
sair (1840-1846) and the pseudonymous author of the novel
En ]ede (A Jew; 1845), and Kierkegaard was one of mutual
admiration: on the one hand, a young writer who sought the
esteem and advice of a more acknowledged writer, who, on
the other hand, discerned the talent and possibilities of the
younger man. They first met at a party in 1838, and
Goldschmidt recounts that Kierkegaard's eyes were "saga
cious, lively, and masterful, with a mixture of good humor
1 W. H. Auden, "A Knight ofDoleful Countenance," New Yorker, May 25,
1968, p. 41.
2 Kierkegaard and M01ler had been students at the University of Copen
hagen in the 1830s; Goldschmidt, a young journalist in Na:stved, came to
Copenhagen in 1840 and started The Corsair that year.
3 Paul Rubow, Goldschmidt og Nemesis (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1% 8),
p. 118 (ed. tr.).
Vlll Historical Introduction
and malice" and that in conversation he "constantly remained
much superior to me. "4
Their second meeting5 occurred after the appearance in The
Corsair of an inadequate review (October 22, 1841),6 which
Goldschmidt had amended in a postscript, of Kierkegaard's
dissertation, The Concept of Irony. As they conversed, Kier
kegaard advised Goldschmidt to apply himself "to comic
writing, that was my task. I took his words as good advice
kindly meant, which they also undoubtedly were. . .. But
what was the task assigned to me: comic writing? I could
not very well ask him about that, and I did not know what
it was. "7 During other meetings on the street, Goldschmidt
recounts, "the question was always on the tip of my tongue:
What is the task you have assigned me? What is comic writ
ing? But neither did I have the right talents for raising the
question, nor did his personality make such an approach eas-
t. er. "8
When Either/Or, edited by Victor Eremita, appeared in
1843, Mraller and Goldschmidt were "more or less agreed that
Victor Eremita was the most brilliant Greek to emerge again
on the scene. There was a wealth of thought, wit, irony, mas
tery, especially the last. He was masterly in everything and
could himself be Either I Or, Both I And, if not personally, then
in his thought." Goldschmidt even sent Victor Eremita and
Mraller an invitation to a celebration (with a "flask of rare Ital
ian wine"), although, of course, the guest of honor could be
present only invisibly.9 In The Corsair,10 the book was
praised, albeit in a typically ofThanded way.
In 1845, The Corsair lauded the editor ofS tages on Life's Way
by suggesting that it would be more enjoyable "to eat dry
bread and drink water with Hilarius Bookbinder than to
4 See Supplement, p. 138. 5 See Supplement, p. 139.
6 See Supplement, pp. 92-93.
7 See Supplement, p. 139.
8 See Supplement, p. 141. Later, in a letter Qanuary 8, 1879) to Otto Borch
senius, Goldschmidt confirms that Kierkegaard "called me to esthetics and
comic writing." Breve fra og til Mei'r Goldschmidt, I-II, ed. Morten Borup
(Copenhagen: 1963), Letter 411, I, p. 225 (ed. tr.).
9 See Supplement, pp. 141-42. 10 See Supplement, pp. 93-95.
Historical Introduction IX
drink champagne with Mr. Bootius. "11 The climax of The
Corsair's always gentle and often laudatory treatment of the
pseudonymous Kierkegaard came in the fateful phrase in the
issue of November 14, 1845: "Lehman will die and be forgot
ten, but Victor Eremita will never die. "12
Goldschmidt's esteem for Kierkegaard and the pseudony
mous works was genuine, as were Kierkegaard's admiration
of and expectations for Goldschmidt. As reputed editor of
The Corsair, Goldschmidt had made himself something of an
outsider in a way consistent with the paper's flamboyant
motto: "His hand shall be against all, and the hands of all
against him." Whatever Kierkegaard thought about the
paper, he thought well of the young writer, and.Goldschmidt
appreciated the older writer's interest and his willingness to
converse with him publicly. According to Rikard Magnussen,
at that time "the position ofJ ews in Denmark was still such
that the oppression of the race could force upon the gifted Jew
a constrictive inner insecurity and a passionate need for rec
ognition, a need that in reality still contained a certain con
tempt for the society whose recognition it sought .... "13
Goldschmidt edited the satirical, oppositionist weekly
paper for six years, from 1840 to 1846, a time called "The Cor
sair's reign of terror." Magnussen writes of "the tyranny the
scandal sheet The Corsair exercised over the citizenry at the
time. "14 Georg Brandes declares, "At that time The Corsair
seemed to have at least as much power as the dominant so
called serious press in our day. "15 With the largest circulation
in the city and in the country, with talented anonymous
writers and cartoonists of wit and malice, with a series of
straw men as "responsible editor," with disdain for public po
sition and personal privacy, The Corsair gathered and cleverly
exploited fact, rumor, and gossi~"and with good reason all
feared being treated in that paper, and it could be fateful for a
11 See Supplement, p. 96. 12 Ibid.
13 Rikard Magnussen, Det sa?rlige Kors (Copenhagen: 1942), p. 161 (ed. tr.).
14 Ibid., pp. 164-65 (ed. tr.).
15 Georg Brandes, Seren Kierkegaard, Samlede Skrijier, I-XVIII (Copen
hagen: 1899-1910), II, p. 378 (ed. tr.).