The Shadow
It is in the hot lands that the sun burns, sure enough! there the peoplebecome quite a mahogany brown, ay, and in the HOTTEST lands they are burnt toNegroes. But now it was only to the HOT lands that a learned man had come fromthe cold; there he thought that he could run about just as when at home, buthe soon found out his mistake.
He, and all sensible folks, were obliged to stay within doors--thewindow-shutters and doors were closed the whole day; it looked as if the wholehouse slept, or there was no one at home.
The narrow street with the high houses, was built so that the sunshine mustfall there from morning till evening--it was really not to be borne.
The learned man from the cold lands--he was a young man, and seemed to be aclever man--sat in a glowing oven; it took effect on him, he became quitemeagre--even his shadow shrunk in, for the sun had also an effect on it. Itwas first towards evening when the sun was down, that they began to freshen upagain.
In the warm lands every window has a balcony, and the people came out on allthe balconies in the street--for one must have air, even if one be accustomedto be mahogany!* It was lively both up and down the street. Tailors, andshoemakers, and all the folks, moved out into the street--chairs and tableswere brought forth--and candles burnt--yes, above a thousand lights wereburning--and the one talked and the other sung; and people walked andchurch-bells rang, and asses went along with a dingle-dingle-dong! for theytoo had bells on. The street boys were screaming and hooting, and shouting andshooting, with devils and detonating balls--and there came corpse bearers andhood wearers--for there were funerals with psalm and hymn--and then the din ofcarriages driving and company arriving: yes, it was, in truth, lively enoughdown in the street. Only in that single house, which stood opposite that inwhich the learned foreigner lived, it was quite still; and yet some one livedthere, for there stood flowers in the balcony--they grew so well in the sun'sheat! and that they could not do unless they were watered--and some one mustwater them--there must be somebody there. The door opposite was also openedlate in the evening, but it was dark within, at least in the front room;further in there was heard the sound of music. The learned foreigner thoughtit quite marvellous, but now--it might be that he only imagined it--for hefound everything marvellous out there, in the warm lands, if there had onlybeen no sun. The stranger's landlord said that he didn't know who had takenthe house opposite, one saw no person about, and as to the music, it appearedto him to be extremely tiresome. "It is as if some one sat there, andpractised a piece that he could not master--always the same piece. 'I shallmaster it!' says he; but yet he cannot master it, however long he plays."
* The word mahogany can be understood, in Danish, as having two meanings.In general, it means the reddish-brown wood itself; but in jest, it signifies"excessively fine," which arose from an anecdote of Nyboder, in Copenhagen,(the seamen's quarter.) A sailor's wife, who was always proud and fine, in herway, came to her neighbor, and complained that she had got a splinter in herfinger. "What of?" asked the neighbor's wife. "It is a mahogany splinter,"said the other. "Mahogany! It cannot be less with you!" exclaimed thewoman--and thence the proverb, "It is so mahogany!"--(that is, so excessivelyfine)--is derived.
One night the stranger awoke--he slept with the doors of the balcony open--thecurtain before it was raised by the wind, and he thought that a strange lustrecame from the opposite neighbor's house; all the flowers shone like flames, inthe most beautiful colors, and in the midst of the flowers stood a slender,graceful maiden--it was as if she also shone; the light really hurt his eyes.He now opened them quite wide--yes, he was quite awake; with one spring he wason the floor; he crept gently behind the curtain, but the maiden was gone; theflowers shone no longer, but there they stood, fresh and blooming as ever; thedoor was ajar, and, far within, the music sounded so soft and delightful, onecould really melt away in sweet thoughts from it. Yet it was like a piece ofenchantment. And who lived there? Where was the actual entrance? The whole ofthe ground-floor was a row of shops, and there people could not always berunning through.
One evening the stranger sat out on the balcony. The light burnt in the roombehind him; and thus it was quite natural that his shadow should fall on hisopposite neighbor's wall. Yes! there it sat, directly opposite, between theflowers on the balcony; and when the stranger moved, the shadow also moved:for that it always does.
"I think my shadow is the only living thing one sees over there," said thelearned man. "See, how nicely it sits between the flowers. The door standshalf-open: now the shadow should be cunning, and go into the room, look about,and then come and tell me what it had seen. Come, now! Be useful, and do me aservice," said he, in jest. "Have the kindness to step in. Now! Art thougoing?" and then he nodded to the shadow, and the shadow nodded again. "Wellthen, go! But don't stay away."
The stranger rose, and his shadow on the opposite neighbor's balcony rosealso; the stranger turned round and the shadow also turned round. Yes! ifanyone had paid particular attention to it, they would have seen, quitedistinctly, that the shadow went in through the half-open balcony-door oftheir opposite neighbor, just as the stranger went into his own room, and letthe long curtain fall down after him.
Next morning, the learned man went out to drink coffee and read thenewspapers.
"What is that?" said he, as he came out into the sunshine. "I have no shadow!So then, it has actually gone last night, and not come again. It is reallytiresome!"
This annoyed him: not so much because the shadow was gone, but because he knewthere was a story about a man without a shadow.* It was known to everybody athome, in the cold lands; and if the learned man now came there and told hisstory, they would say that he was imitating it, and that he had no need to do.He would, therefore, not talk about it at all; and that was wisely thought.
*Peter Schlemihl, the shadowless man.
In the evening he went out again on the balcony. He had placed the lightdirectly behind him, for he knew that the shadow would always have its masterfor a screen, but he could not entice it. He made himself little; he madehimself great: but no shadow came again. He said, "Hem! hem!" but it was of nouse.
It was vexatious; but in the warm lands everything grows so quickly; and afterthe lapse of eight days he observed, to his great joy, that a new shadow camein the sunshine. In the course of three weeks he had a very fair shadow,which, when he set out for his home in the northern lands, grew more and morein the journey, so that at last it was so long and so large, that it was morethan sufficient.
The learned man then came home, and he wrote books about what was true in theworld, and about what was good and what was beautiful; and there passed daysand years--yes! many years passed away.
One evening, as he was sitting in his room, there was a gentle knocking at thedoor.
"Come in!" said he; but no one came in; so he opened the door, and there stoodbefore him such an extremely lean man, that he felt quite strange. As to therest, the man was very finely dressed--he must be a gentleman.
"Whom have I the honor of speaking?" asked the learned man.
"Yes! I thought as much," said the fine man. "I thought you would not knowme. I have got so much body. I have even got flesh and clothes. You certainlynever thought of seeing me so well off. Do you not know your old shadow? Youcertainly thought I should never more return. Things have gone on well with mesince I was last with you. I have, in all respects, become very well off.Shall I purchase my freedom from service? If so, I can do it"; and then herattled a whole bunch of valuable seals that hung to his watch, and he stuckhis hand in the thick gold chain he wore around his neck--nay! how all hisfingers glittered with diamond rings; and then all were pure gems.
"Nay; I cannot recover from my surprise!" said the learned man. "What is themeaning of all this?"
"Something common, is it not," said the shadow. "But you yourself do notbelong to the common order; and I, as you know well, have from a childfollowed in your footsteps. As soon as you found I was capable to go out alonein the world, I went my own way. I am in the most brilliant circumstances, butthere came a sort of desire over me to see you once more before you die; youwill die, I suppose? I also wished to see this land again--for you know wealways love our native land. I know you have got another shadow again; have Ianything to pay to it or you? If so, you will oblige me by saying what it is."
"Nay, is it really thou?" said the learned man. "It is most remarkable: Inever imagined that one's old shadow could come again as a man."
"Tell me what I have to pay," said the shadow; "for I don't like to be in anysort of debt."
"How canst thou talk so?" said the learned man. "What debt is there to talkabout? Make thyself as free as anyone else. I am extremely glad to hear of thygood fortune: sit down, old friend, and tell me a little how it has gone withthee, and what thou hast seen at our opposite neighbor's there--in the warmlands."
"Yes, I will tell you all about it," said the shadow, and sat down: "but thenyou must also promise me, that, wherever you may meet me, you will never sayto anyone here in the town that I have been your shadow. I intend to getbetrothed, for I can provide for more than one family."
"Be quite at thy ease about that," said the learned man; "I shall not say toanyone who thou actually art: here is my hand--I promise it, and a man's bondis his word."
"A word is a shadow," said the shadow, "and as such it must speak."
It was really quite astonishing how much of a man it was. It was dressedentirely in black, and of the very finest cloth; it had patent leather boots,and a hat that could be folded together, so that it was bare crown and brim;not to speak of what we already know it had--seals, gold neck-chain, anddiamond rings; yes, the shadow was well-dressed, and it was just that whichmade it quite a man.
"Now I shall tell you my adventures," said the shadow; and then he sat, withthe polished boots, as heavily as he could, on the arm of the learned man'snew shadow, which lay like a poodle-dog at his feet. Now this was perhaps fromarrogance; and the shadow on the ground kept itself so still and quiet, thatit might hear all that passed: it wished to know how it could get free, andwork its way up, so as to become its own master.
"Do you know who lived in our opposite neighbor's house?" said the shadow. "Itwas the most charming of all beings, it was Poesy! I was there for threeweeks, and that has as much effect as if one had lived three thousand years,and read all that was composed and written; that is what I say, and it isright. I have seen everything and I know everything!"
"Poesy!" cried the learned man. "Yes, yes, she often dwells a recluse inlarge cities! Poesy! Yes, I have seen her--a single short moment, but sleepcame into my eyes! She stood on the balcony and shone as the Aurora Borealisshines. Go on, go on--thou wert on the balcony, and went through the doorway,and then--"
"Then I was in the antechamber," said the shadow. "You always sat and lookedover to the antechamber. There was no light; there was a sort of twilight, butthe one door stood open directly opposite the other through a long row ofrooms and saloons, and there it was lighted up. I should have been completelykilled if I had gone over to the maiden; but I was circumspect, I took time tothink, and that one must always do."
"And what didst thou then see?" asked the learned man.
"I saw everything, and I shall tell all to you: but--it is no pride on mypart--as a free man, and with the knowledge I have, not to speak of myposition in life, my excellent circumstances--I certainly wish that you wouldsay YOU* to me!"
* It is the custom in Denmark for intimate acquaintances to use thesecond person singular, "Du," (thou) when speaking to each other. When afriendship is formed between men, they generally affirm it, when occasionoffers, either in public or private, by drinking to each other and exclaiming,"thy health," at the same time striking their glasses together. This is calleddrinking "Duus": they are then, "Duus Brodre," (thou brothers) and everafterwards use the pronoun "thou," to each other, it being regarded as morefamiliar than "De," (you). Father and mother, sister and brother say thou toone another--without regard to age or rank. Master and mistress say thou totheir servants the superior to the inferior. But servants and inferiors do notuse the same term to their masters, or superiors--nor is it ever used whenspeaking to a stranger, or anyone with whom they are but slightly acquainted--they then say as in English--you.
"I beg your pardon," said the learned man; "it is an old habit with me. YOUare perfectly right, and I shall remember it; but now you must tell me all YOUsaw!"
"Everything!" said the shadow. "For I saw everything, and I know everything!"
"How did it look in the furthest saloon?" asked the learned man. "Was it thereas in the fresh woods? Was it there as in a holychurch? Were the saloons like the starlit firmament when we stand on the highmountains?"
"Everything was there!" said the shadow. "I did not go quite in, I remained inthe foremost room, in the twilight, but I stood there quite well; I saweverything, and I know everything! I have been in the antechamber at the courtof Poesy."
"But WHAT DID you see? Did all the gods of the olden times pass through thelarge saloons? Did the old heroes combat there? Did sweet children play there,and relate their dreams?"
"I tell you I was there, and you can conceive that I saw everything there wasto be seen. Had you come over there, you would not have been a man; but Ibecame so! And besides, I learned to know my inward nature, my innatequalities, the relationship I had with Poesy. At the time I was with you, Ithought not of that, but always--you know it well--when the sun rose, and whenthe sun went down, I became so strangely great; in the moonlight I was verynear being more distinct than yourself; at that time I did not understand mynature; it was revealed to me in the antechamber! I became a man! I came outmatured; but you were no longer in the warm lands; as a man I was ashamed togo as I did. I was in want of boots, of clothes, of the whole human varnishthat makes a man perceptible. I took my way--I tell it to you, but you willnot put it in any book--I took my way to the cake woman--I hid myself behindher; the woman didn't think how much she concealed. I went out first in theevening; I ran about the streets in the moonlight; I made myself long up thewalls--it tickles the back so delightfully! I ran up, and ran down, peepedinto the highest windows, into the saloons, and on the roofs, I peeped inwhere no one could peep, and I saw what no one else saw, what no one elseshould see! This is, in fact, a base world! I would not be a man if it werenot now once accepted and regarded as something to be so! I saw the mostunimaginable things with the women, with the men, with parents, and with thesweet, matchless children; I saw," said the shadow, "what no human being mustknow, but what they would all so willingly know--what is bad in theirneighbor. Had I written a newspaper, it would have been read! But I wrotedirect to the persons themselves, and there was consternation in all thetowns where I came. They were so afraid of me, and yet they were soexcessively fond of me. The professors made a professor of me; the tailorsgave me new clothes--I am well furnished; the master of the mint struck newcoin for me, and the women said I was so handsome! And so I became the man Iam. And I now bid you farewell. Here is my card--I live on the sunny side ofthe street, and am always at home in rainy weather!" And so away went theshadow. "That was most extraordinary!" said the learned man. Years and dayspassed away, then the shadow came again. "How goes it?" said the shadow.
"Alas!" said the learned man. "I write about the true, and the good, and thebeautiful, but no one cares to hear such things; I am quite desperate, for Itake it so much to heart!"
"But I don't!" said the shadow. "I become fat, and it is that one wants tobecome! You do not understand the world. You will become ill by it. You musttravel! I shall make a tour this summer; will you go with me? I should like tohave a travelling companion! Will you go with me, as shadow? It will be agreat pleasure for me to have you with me; I shall pay the travellingexpenses!"
"Nay, this is too much!" said the learned man.
"It is just as one takes it!" said the shadow. "It will do you much good totravel! Will you be my shadow? You shall have everything free on the journey!"
"Nay, that is too bad!" said the learned man.
"But it is just so with the world!" said the shadow, "and so it will be!" andaway it went again.
The learned man was not at all in the most enviable state; grief and tormentfollowed him, and what he said about the true, and the good, and thebeautiful, was, to most persons, like roses for a cow! He was quite ill atlast.
"You really look like a shadow!" said his friends to him; and the learned mantrembled, for he thought of it.
"You must go to a watering-place!" said the shadow, who came and visited him."There is nothing else for it! I will take you with me for old acquaintance'sake; I will pay the travelling expenses, and you write the descriptions--andif they are a little amusing for me on the way! I will go to awatering-place--my beard does not grow out as it ought--that is also asickness--and one must have a beard! Now you be wise and accept the offer; weshall travel as comrades!"
And so they travelled; the shadow was master, and the master was the shadow;they drove with each other, they rode and walked together, side by side,before and behind, just as the sun was; the shadow always took care to keepitself in the master's place. Now the learned man didn't think much aboutthat; he was a very kind-hearted man, and particularly mild and friendly, andso he said one day to the shadow: "As we have now become companions, and inthis way have grown up together from childhood, shall we not drink 'thou'together, it is more familiar?"
"You are right," said the shadow, who was now the proper master. "It is saidin a very straight-forward and well-meant manner. You, as a learned man,certainly know how strange nature is. Some persons cannot bear to touch greypaper, or they become ill; others shiver in every limb if one rub a pane ofglass with a nail: I have just such a feeling on hearing you say thou to me; Ifeel myself as if pressed to the earth in my first situation with you. You seethat it is a feeling; that it is not pride: I cannot allow you to say THOU tome, but I will willingly say THOU to you, so it is half done!"
So the shadow said THOU to its former master.
"This is rather too bad," thought he, "that I must say YOU and he say THOU,"but he was now obliged to put up with it.
So they came to a watering-place where there were many strangers, and amongstthem was a princess, who was troubled with seeing too well; and that was soalarming!
She directly observed that the stranger who had just come was quite adifferent sort of person to all the others; "He has come here in order to gethis beard to grow, they say, but I see the real cause, he cannot cast ashadow."
She had become inquisitive; and so she entered into conversation directly withthe strange gentleman, on their promenades. As the daughter of a king, sheneeded not to stand upon trifles, so she said, "Your complaint is, that youcannot cast a shadow?"
"Your Royal Highness must be improving considerably," said the shadow, "I knowyour complaint is, that you see too clearly, but it has decreased, you arecured. I just happen to have a very unusual shadow! Do you not see that personwho always goes with me? Other persons have a common shadow, but I do not likewhat is common to all. We give our servants finer cloth for their livery thanwe ourselves use, and so I had my shadow trimmed up into a man: yes, you see Ihave even given him a shadow. It is somewhat expensive, but I like to havesomething for myself!"
"What!" thought the princess. "Should I really be cured! These baths are thefirst in the world! In our time water has wonderful powers. But I shall notleave the place, for it now begins to be amusing here. I am extremely fond ofthat stranger: would that his beard should not grow, for in that case he willleave us!"
In the evening, the princess and the shadow danced together in the largeball-room. She was light, but he was still lighter; she had never had such apartner in the dance. She told him from what land she came, and he knew thatland; he had been there, but then she was not at home; he had peeped in at thewindow, above and below--he had seen both the one and the other, and so hecould answer the princess, and make insinuations, so that she was quiteastonished; he must be the wisest man in the whole world! She felt suchrespect for what he knew! So that when they again danced together she fell inlove with him; and that the shadow could remark, for she almost pierced himthrough with her eyes. So they danced once more together; and she was about todeclare herself, but she was discreet; she thought of her country and kingdom,and of the many persons she would have to reign over.
"He is a wise man," said she to herself--"It is well; and he dancesdelightfully--that is also good; but has he solid knowledge? That is just asimportant! He must be examined."
So she began, by degrees, to question him about the most difficult things shecould think of, and which she herself could not have answered; so that theshadow made a strange face.
"You cannot answer these questions?" said the princess.
"They belong to my childhood's learning," said the shadow. "I really believemy shadow, by the door there, can answer them!"
"Your shadow!" said the princess. "That would indeed be marvellous!"
"I will not say for a certainty that he can," said the shadow, "but I thinkso; he has now followed me for so many years, and listened to myconversation--I should think it possible. But your royal highness will permitme to observe, that he is so proud of passing himself off for a man, that whenhe is to be in a proper humor--and he must be so to answer well--he must betreated quite like a man."
"Oh! I like that!" said the princess.
So she went to the learned man by the door, and she spoke to him about the sunand the moon, and about persons out of and in the world, and he answered withwisdom and prudence.
"What a man that must be who has so wise a shadow!" thought she. "It will be areal blessing to my people and kingdom if I choose him for my consort--I willdo it!"
They were soon agreed, both the princess and the shadow; but no one was toknow about it before she arrived in her own kingdom.
"No one--not even my shadow!" said the shadow, and he had his own thoughtsabout it!
Now they were in the country where the princess reigned when she was at home.
"Listen, my good friend," said the shadow to the learned man. "I have nowbecome as happy and mighty as anyone can be; I will, therefore, do somethingparticular for thee! Thou shalt always live with me in the palace, drive withme in my royal carriage, and have ten thousand pounds a year; but then thoumust submit to be called SHADOW by all and everyone; thou must not say thatthou hast ever been a man; and once a year, when I sit on the balcony in thesunshine, thou must lie at my feet, as a shadow shall do! I must tell thee: Iam going to marry the king's daughter, and the nuptials are to take place thisevening!"
"Nay, this is going too far!" said the learned man. "I will not have it; Iwill not do it! It is to deceive the whole country and the princess too! Iwill tell everything! That I am a man, and that thou art a shadow--thou artonly dressed up!"
"There is no one who will believe it!" said the shadow. "Be reasonable, or Iwill call the guard!"
"I will go directly to the princess!" said the learned man.
"But I will go first!" said the shadow. "And thou wilt go to prison!" andthat he was obliged to do--for the sentinels obeyed him whom they knew theking's daughter was to marry.
"You tremble!" said the princess, as the shadow came into her chamber. "Hasanything happened? You must not be unwell this evening, now that we are tohave our nuptials celebrated."
"I have lived to see the most cruel thing that anyone can live to see!" saidthe shadow. "Only imagine--yes, it is true, such a poor shadow-skull cannotbear much--only think, my shadow has become mad; he thinks that he is a man,and that I--now only think--that I am his shadow!"
"It is terrible!" said the princess; "but he is confined, is he not?"
"That he is. I am afraid that he will never recover."
"Poor shadow!" said the princess. "He is very unfortunate; it would be a realwork of charity to deliver him from the little life he has, and, when I thinkproperly over the matter, I am of opinion that it will be necessary to do awaywith him in all stillness!"
"It is certainly hard," said the shadow, "for he was a faithful servant!" andthen he gave a sort of sigh.
"You are a noble character!" said the princess.
The whole city was illuminated in the evening, and the cannons went off with abum! bum! and the soldiers presented arms. That was a marriage! The princessand the shadow went out on the balcony to show themselves, and get anotherhurrah!
The learned man heard nothing of all this--for they had deprived him of life.
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