The Seducer's Diary

By Roberto Nicodemo Spatari

Kierkegaard’s masterpiece is presented in the form of a theatrical production that enhances all its vibrancy. The seduction of Cordelia by Johannes stands out as a refined plot of facades which tightens up around the main characters and the audience almost in spite of themselves. The production portrays the typical Nordic sensitiveness of the main character whilst blending into the Mediterranean atmospheres of the Myth which are united in describing the event with exemplary trimmings penetrating all time and going through all parts of the world and the soul which sweeps through it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roberto Nicodemo Spatari
• Release date: Jun 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370274673

Roberto Nicodemo Spatari

Roberto Nicodemo SpatariRoberto Nicodemo Spatari (1964) conferred a degree in Philosophy at the Milan University of Studies and a Ph.D. in Philosophy at the Rome University “La Sapienza”. He also worked on the themes of imagination from Spinoza, Lucretius and Deleuze where he developed the implications and “consistencies” both in the philosophical and artistic spheres. He displayed the multimedia work 'Cinetaxi, the Anamorphosis of the Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice' at the exhibition with the same name which was held in Turin in May 2012 (Marisa Vescovo curator). The “snapshot” 'Donna con Frittata' ('Woman with Omelet') is in the process of being published while the stage adaptation of 'The Seducer’s Diary' by Kierkegaard has been published in Italy with the title of 'Il Seduttore' ('The Seducer') by editor Mimesis (Milan) in 2014. The work 'Il Seduttore' was performed at Calcara (Bologna) in the during the review Scene dal Parco della Luna (Scenes from Moon Park) in May 2014 under the direction of Enrico Petronio Nicolaj and it has been included in the calendar of events for the two hundred years from the birth of Kierkegaard comprehensive of Søren Kierkegaard 2013, Golden Days.

Book preview

THE SEDUCER’S DIARY

Stage adaptation of The Seducer’s Diary by Søren Kierkegaard

Roberto Nicodemo Spatari

Smashwords Edition

Copyright Roberto Nicodemo Spatari

Translated by Diana Mary Hancox

Paintings by Vilhelm Hammershøi

All rights reserved

TOC

Titlepage

Colophon

Table Of Content

License Notes

Roberto Nicodemo Spatari

Cover

THE SEDUCER’S DIARY

CHARACTERS

PROLOGUE

ACT I - SPRING

INTERLUDE

ACT II - SUMMER

EPILOGUE - AUTUMN

License notes

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Roberto Nicodemo Spatari

Roberto Nicodemo Spatari (1964) conferred a degree in Philosophy at the Milan University of Studies and a Ph.D. in Philosophy at the Rome University La Sapienza. He also worked on the themes of imagination from Spinoza and more recently on the philosophical thought of Lucretius, Kierkegaard and Deleuze where he developed the implications and consistencies both in the philosophical and artistic spheres. He published the paper Forme della conoscenza nel linguaggio del Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione di Spinoza (Forms of Knowledge in the Language of Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione of Spinoza) in the journal Bollettino Spinoziano (7, 1996) and he displayed the multimedia work Cinetaxi, the Anamorphosis of the Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice at the exhibition with the same name which was held in Turin in May 2012 (Marisa Vescovo curator). The snapshot Donna con Frittata (Woman with Omelet) is in the process of being published while the stage adaptation of The Seducer’s Diary by Kierkegaard has been published in Italy with the title of Il Seduttore (The Seducer) by editor Mimesis (Milan) in 2014. The work Il Seduttore was performed at Calcara (Bologna) in the during the review Scene dal Parco della Luna (Scenes from Moon Park) in May 2014 under the direction of Enrico Petronio Nicolaj and it has been included in the calendar of events for the two hundred years from the birth of Kierkegaard comprehensive of Søren Kierkegaard 2013, Golden Days.

Photo of the performance of the work Scene dal Parco della Luna (Scenes from Moon Park) at Calcara (Bologna). Michele Radice (Johannes) and Tommaso Minniti (Hansen) actors. Permission given by the organisation of Scene dal Parco della Luna.

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"It is my delight to keep the listeners to my story ‘in suspenso’ by means of minor actions of an episodic nature to ascertain how they want it to tum out, and then in the course of the telling to fool them. My art is to use amphibolies so that the listeners understand one thing from what is said and then suddenly perceive that the words can be interpreted another way".

S. Kierkegaard, The Seducer’s Diary.

THE CHARACTERS

JOHANNES.

CORDELIA WAHL.

PROFESSOR HANSEN. THEOLOGICIAN.

CHARLOTTE HAHN. PROFESSOR HAUSEN’S FIANCÉE.

MRS JANSEN. CORDELIA’S AUNT.

EDVARD. CORDELIA’S SUITOR.

THE JANSEN SISTERS. CORDELIA’S COUSINS.

FRIDRIK SCHLEGEL. THE SECOND COUSINS TO CORDELIA.

JOHANNES’ UNCLE.

PRESIDENT LARS.

THE COUNCILLOR OF STATE.

TWO LADIES.

TWO GENTLEMEN.

THE JANSEN’S MAID.

A MAID NAMED MARIE.

FOUR HAPPY ZEPHIRS.

THREE COUPLES OUT FOR A STROLL.

TWO BEATIFUL GIRLS.

A SHOP ASSISTANT.

A COACHMAN.

A MESSENGER.

A FISHERMAN.

A PRESENTER.

A GIRL AT THEATRE

A YOUNG MAN WITH HER.

A YOUNG LADY WITHOUT AN UMBRELLA.

TWO YOUNG PEOPLE IN LOVE.

A CLUMSY SERVANT (OR NOT!).

A GIRLFRIEND.

JOHANNES’ SERVANT.

VICTOR HEREMIT.

PROLOGUE

1. The people in the audience are taking their seats but there is still somebody standing and the lights are on. A man is standing on the stage all lit up with sheets of paper in his hands; he looks around, rearranges a few things on the stage and picks up some objects without even looking at the audience. His movements are those of a labourer, not of an actor. He starts speaking and introduces himself.

VICTOR HEREMIT Excuse me sirs! I'm sorry for interrupting you like this on your evening at the theatre! Please, be patient and take your seats. You too, madam, have a seat please and you, sirs, at the back there. You too, sir, if you would be so kind as to take a seat.

I have something to say to you, for what it's worth...

The lights are slowly turned off and the man remains standing there alone on the stage.

They call me Victor Heremit, but it's not my real name. When I realised what was going on, here in Copenhagen, I rushed over.

If only I'd known before! I arrived too late, anyway, nobody knows time as he does!

However, I can't contain myself any longer. Just last night I sneaked into his house like a thief and I rummaged through his papers in his desk which, contrary to his usual practice, he had left unlocked. I'm not trying to gloss over my conduct by reminding myself that I had not opened any drawers since that drawer stood open but I couldn't take the risk of facing him. But I didn't want to be the one to unmask him. He would again have had the upper hand, nobody is as good as he is at the art of masquerading!

A pause.

I'm still trembling so much! I can hardly control the anxiety that grips me as I think about what I saw in that room, in those letters, inside that very drawer. Maybe they were not even letters! Who knows what those damned papers were? Damn the contriving heart of that corrupt man!

A pause.

That's what it was, a book! Commentarius perpetuus, or at least that was what was written on it... Beautiful words! It was indeed a diary, painstakingly kept and full of viciousness not always reported accurately. It hadn’t been immediately but sometime afterwards.

Straight away certainly not because right at that moment he was too busy. He claimed to be a poet, a philosopher! But what poet and what philosophy? Only a wretched pleasure, in which he - yes only he - could see and imagine the things, so that then he alone could enjoy them, at the end…

(Shaking his head) The game he played with her was so cruel, that unfortunate girl! Her name was Cordelia, her surname didn't matter. She... Who was left with no repentance.

How does she spend her days now? Does she wonder, if what had happened had been her fault too; you left him, she says to herself, you were the one who broke off the engagement, you were the very cause of your calamity. She then immediately cursed him to then immediately regret it. Poor creature! How many voices she has learned to hear in her heart! He had taught her to do so and now, in her mind, he is neither guilty nor innocent. He is just a pure thought, an obsession.

A pause.

Before sunrise, exhausted, I quickly copied down everything with my heart in my mouth. But now that I had finished my job, and before returning to my endless search for him and to my wandering about among the voices that will take me back again to where he had already been, I thought about how artistically complete and how calculatedly careless of him to have left his papers in that open drawer, in that desk without a key so that it would have been me who would find them.

And now it's as if all my anguish has vanished as I tell you about what happened but a tremendous doubt has come into my mind, that I hadn’t actually discovered anything last night but that I had only been his clerk.

Cordelia comes in wearing a thin camisole.

CORDELIA Johannes!

There was a rich man.

Who had great flocks and herds of livestock, large and small.

And there was a poor little maiden.

Who only possessed but one little sheep.

And they fed together from her hand and drank from her cup.

You were the rich man, rich in every treasure of this world!

And me but a poor creature, who nothing possessed but my love!

(Irritated) And you took it from me! To delight in it!

And then... When other pleasures smiled on you.

You sacrificed to them the little I possessed.

And nothing of your own you wish to sacrifice.

(Absentmindedly) There was a rich man.

Who possessed great flocks and herds.

And there was a poor little maiden.

Who nothing possessed but her love for him.

Two young lovers enter the scene, running after each other and laughing. They pick up some notes from the ground and read them. Cordelia is looking at them absentmindedly from aside.

THE YOUNG BOY "Oh Johannes! I call you ‘mine’ and I call myself ‘yours’. And as these words once flattered your ear, proudly inclined to my adoration, so shall they now sound as a curse upon you, a curse for all eternity!

THE YOUNG GIRL Look, there is another!

THE YOUNG BOY Oh Johannes! Can your true soul be so cruelly pitiless and cold towards me? Could your love and your heart, your rich heart, have been nothing more than a lie and everlasting deceit? Are you now yourself again? Be patient with my love! Forgive me if I can't stop loving you! And even though I know that my love is a burden to you, there will still come a time when you will come back to me, to your Cordelia! ‘Your’ Cordelia!.

THE YOUNG GIRL There are more! How many are there! One, two, another! And yet another! How many are there?

THE YOUNG BOY Let's go away from here!

They shrug their shoulders and throw their little notes away All the actors leave. The scene is left empty.

ACT I

SPRING

2. A street in Copenhagen occupies half the scene. It is evening and there is a big full moon right behind a row of shining street lamps. Some people taking a stroll are painted on the canvas. There is the inside of a shop on the street in the other half of the scene. Cordelia descends from a carriage from which there is a noise. Cordelia can be seen trying to alight from the carriage but her foot is caught in the carriage step. While trying to free herself, Cordelia falls on top of a servant and a shop assistant comes out of the shop to help her. A man, Johannes, watches the scene first directly but then he turns round and watches the scene from the reflection in a shop window.

CORDELIA Help, please...

She falls on top of the servant and they both tumble to the ground. During their fall, the servant embraces Cordelia who is still caught up in the carriage step.

CORDELIA What are you doing?

THE SERVANT It is you who fell on me.

CORDELIA Let me go!

THE SERVANT I'm being as quick as I can!

Cordelia and the servant are still lying on the ground.

THE SERVANT (Wriggles free) Done!

The servant holds out his hand to help her but once she takes his hand they tumble to the ground again at the same moment as an assistant comes out of the shop.

THE SHOP ASSISTANT (To the servant) You are doing it on purpose! I'll have you whipped!

THE SERVANT I only wanted to help her!

THE SHOP ASSISTANT (Helps her stand up) Madam, are you hurt?

CORDELIA No, everything is alright…

THE SHOP ASSISTANT I did my duty well, didn't I? She was the one who fell on me, she could have thanked me! She didn't injure herself thanks to me being underneath!

THE SHOP ASSISTANT You'd better leave or I'll call the guards. And I'll have you whipped!

THE SERVANT (Stands up and dusts down his clothes with his hands) There you are, instead of being thanked.

THE SHOP ASSISTANT You should thank God for meeting such a genteel lady!

Cordelia does not utter a word, she looks down while she adjusts her clothing and then she raises her head again. Johannes watches Cordelia look at a shop window and decide to enter the shop. Johannes follows her, pretends to be indifferent and watches her reflection in a mirror on the other side of the shop. Cordelia turns round and Johannes steals a glance at her, just for an instant as she starts talking to the assistant who has come back inside in the meantime.

CORDELIA These gloves are so nice!

THE SHOP ASSISTANT This is the best leather there is in Copenhagen. If you find something better you can return them. Even though you may have used them for a year!

CORDELIA Be careful, I could take you at your word.

She places the gloves to one side.

CORDELIA I've forgotten my purse.

THE SHOP ASSISTANT You can have them all the same if you like them.

CORDELIA I'll tell you where I live and what my name is.

THE SHOP ASSISTANT There's really no need.

CORDELIA You don't even know me.

THE SHOP ASSISTANT Copenhagen is not such a big city, madam!

CORDELIA Anyway I'll send you a servant tomorrow with the sum I owe you.

THE SHOP ASSISTANT I assure you that it won't be necessary. You are always welcome to visit when you wish so that I hope we'll have the pleasure of seeing you here again in the shop.

CORDELIA Thank you, I'll return next week.

THE SHOP ASSISTANT We'll be expecting your visit, madam. Extend my regards to your aunt and your cousins.

Johannes exits from the shop but remains nearby while Cordelia and the salesman are still talking. Johannes walks away to the back of the scene. He turns round for a moment before disappearing. At the same time, Cordelia leaves as well. They both stop for a second and then they both go in opposite ways.

3. The scene is divided into two parts lit up alternately, so that while one is dark, the other is lit up. Johannes is first in his study; a bookcase is in the background and hanging on the wall are portraits of important men with diplomas and awards. A desk is in the centre of the room with a lot of papers, a lamp and a mirror on it. The scene is arranged in such a way that it is quite sufficient to change the furniture round or to remove it, so as to transform the scene. The two halves of the scene appear in sequence from left to right starting with Johannes's study and Cordelia's room; the corner of a foyer (with the day version on the left and night version on the right); Johannes's study and external scene by night; the inside of the main entrance and a street in Copenhagen. Johannes is again in his study and Cordelia is on the shore of a river where Johannes goes at the end of the scene while Cordelia returns to her room again.

JOHANNES (Writes) Take care, my beautiful stranger! Take care! To step out of a carriage is not such a simple matter! The carriage steps are usually so ill contrived that one is almost compelled to forget all grace when you step down from them. This is the good deal a coachman and servants have! Sometimes you have to hazard a desperate leap and let yourself fall into their... Arms!

There are lots of reasons for envying them on these occasions! And I do believe that the more leaps or jumps of that kind you hazard the more a servant or a coachman easily comes to know the deep secrets of a little lady.

A pause.

(As before) I kept aside, hoping she would not fall and then I watched her. (To his reflection in the mirror) The mirror in which I watched her was similar to you, but how unhappy your life must be! You have to give everything you have to the world. And yet, there are a lot of men like that! There are those who only enjoy their belongings when they show them to others. Those who merely grasp the surface, not the essence and lose everything when their inner-self finally discloses.

If she had