Every key has its own story, and there are many kinds of keys: the head chamberlain's key, the key that opens the bell, St. Peter's key1. We could talk about all the keys, but for now we'll just talk about the head chamberlain's key to the gate.
It was born in the locksmith's house. But that blacksmith caught it and hammered and filed it, and it thought it was born at the blacksmith's. In a pants pocket it was a little too big, so it had to be put in a coat pocket. There it often lay in the dark, but it had its regular place on the wall, beside the portrait of the head chamberlain in his childhood; the head chamberlain then looked like a wrinkled meatball.
It is said that everyone develops a certain character and behavior with the sign of his birth. The almanacs note these signs: Taurus, Virgo, Scorpio, etc. Mrs. Chief Chamberlain does not mention any of the above. She said that her husband was born under the sign of the wheelbarrow, and that he had to be pushed forward.
His father pushed him into an office, his mother pushed him into a marriage, and his wife pushed him up to the position of chamberlain. But in the end she did not speak of this matter; she was a very calculating and amiable person, shutting her mouth when it was time to be silent, and speaking and pushing when it was time to speak and push.
Now that he is old and "in good shape," as he put it himself, he is a connoisseur with knowledge, a sense of humor, and a knowledge of keys. We shall know better in the future. He was always in a very pleasant mood. He loved everyone he met and couldn't wait to talk to them for a while. If he went to town, it would have been difficult to get him home without his old mother pushing him behind. He would talk to every acquaintance he met. He had so many acquaintances that he missed his dinner. The head chamberlain's wife looked out of the window." Here he comes!" She said to the maid, "Put up the pot! --He stood still, chatting with a man, and took the pot down, or the dish would have burned too badly! --Now he may come, yes, stanch the pot again!" And yet he did not come back.
He could have stood under his window and nodded his head upwards, but as soon as an acquaintance walked by at that moment he was obliged to have a word with him. If a second acquaintance came while he was talking to this one, he took the first one by the buttons of his coat and shook the second one by the hand, and at the same time greeted the third one who passed by.
It was a test of the patience of Mrs. Chief Chamberlain." Head chamberlain!" She cried out, "Yes, this man was born under the 'wheelbarrow seat,' and if he is not pushed, he will not go forward!"
He enjoyed visiting the bookstore, looking at the books and flipping through the magazines. He gave the bookstore owner a small gratuity in order to be allowed to bring new books home to read. That is, he is allowed to cut the straight edges of the book, but not the horizontal edges of the top of the book,③ because then the book can not be sold as a new book. In any case he was a living newspaper for the benefit of all. He knew about engagements, marriages, funerals, book and newspaper gossip, and street gossip. Yes, he could make all sorts of mysterious allusions to things no one knew about to let people know. Such things he got from the gate-key.
When they were young newlyweds, the head chamberlain lived in his own mansion. Since then, they have always used that key. But at the time they didn't know the power of the key, which they learned later. It was the time of Frederick VI4. There was no gas in Copenhagen, and oil candles were used. There was no funfory5 or kasino6 , no trams, no trains. There were not many playgrounds compared to today. On Sundays everyone went out of the city to the Mutual Aid Church Park,7 to read the gravestones, to sit on the grass, to eat the food brought in baskets, and to drink some soju. Or else to Frederiksberg Park (8), where a military band of the Royal Guard played in front of the palace, and where many people watched the royal family rowing in the narrow river, with the old king at the helm of the boat. He and the Queen greeted and saluted all the people - of whatever status. In addition, the rich people of the city came here for afternoon tea. They can get boiling water from a small farmhouse outside the park, but they have to bring their own tea set.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the head chamberlain's family came there too. The maid carried the tea set and a basket of food and a bottle of "Spendrup".
"Bring the gate key!" Mrs. Chief Chamberlain said, "You can open the door yourself when you come back. You know the doors are locked here as soon as it gets dark. The doorbell rope is broken in the morning! --We'll be back late! After we go to Frederiksberg Park, we'll have to go to the Kasoti ⑨ theater at Westbridge to see the pantomime 'Harlequin, the Harvester's Head'; they're descending there from the clouds; and they're charging two marks apiece for it!"
They went to Frederiksberg Park, and listened to the music, and saw the ships of the royal family with their flags flying, and the old king and the white swan. After a comfortable refreshment they left in a hurry. But not in time to reach the theater. The rope-stepping was over, and the stilt-dancing was finished. The pantomime had long since begun. They were late as usual, and that was all the fault of the head chamberlain, who always stopped to talk to acquaintances on the way. It was in the theater that he met good friends. After the performance, he and his wife had to follow an acquaintance back to their home "on the bridge" for a glass of mixed wine. They wanted to stay only ten minutes, but they sat there for a whole hour, talking endlessly. It was particularly interesting that the head chamberlain, a Swedish baron, or perhaps a German, did not remember clearly, but on the contrary, he remembered very well the tricks he had been taught about keys. It was really funny! He could make the key answer all questions, no matter what you asked, even the most secret things.
The Chief Chamberlain's gate key was particularly well suited for this. It is particularly heavy, so the head should hang upside down. The Baron placed the key on the index finger of his right hand, where it hung easily. Each pulse beat on his fingertip made it move. So it turned. If it did not move, then the Baron knew how to make it turn with his will. Each turn represented a letter, starting with A and going down the order as he wished. When you have found the first letter, the key turns in the opposite direction; so that you can find the second letter. And so on, you have a complete word, a complete sentence, and you can answer the question. It was all nonsense, but it was fun. The head chamberlain had originally thought it was just as much fun, but he changed his mind; he was completely mesmerized by the key.
"Hey, sir!" Mrs. Chief Chamberlain shouted." The West Side is closing at twelve! We'll be unable to get in, and we have only a quarter of an hour left to hurry."
They hurried on; several people who were going into the city hurried past them. At last they approached the last post, when exactly twelve knocks were made, and the gates of the city were closed with a bang. Many were shut out of the city, among them the chief chamberlain's family, and their maids carrying teapots and empty baskets. Some were alarmed, some were annoyed. Each had his own idea of what to do.
Fortunately a decision was made at that time to leave one of the city gates - the north gate - open, so that they could be slipped through the post and into the city.
But it wasn't very close, but the weather was fine. The sky was clear and full of stars, meteors streaked across the sky, and frogs croaked in the gutters and pools. The group began to sing, song after song. Yet the chief chamberlain did not sing, nor did he look at the stars, yea, not even at his own feet. He stumbled and almost fell into the gutter. One would have thought he was drunk, but it wasn't the mixed wine that had gone to his head, it was the keys, it was the keys that had gotten into his head and were spinning there. They finally made it to the north gate post and walked across the bridge into town.
"That's a relief!" Mrs. Chief Chamberlain said." It's at our doorstep!"
"But where is the gate key?" The Chief Chamberlain said. It was not in the back pocket, nor in the side coat pocket." The key is gone? You lost it when you were doing the key trick with the Baron. How are we going to get in! The doorbell rope broke in the morning, you know that. The night-watchman has no key to open the door. This is nothing to be done!" The maid began to weep; the head chamberlain was the one who kept his composure.
"We'll have to break one of the grocer's windows (11)!" He said, "Shout him up so we can get in."
He broke one, and then a second." Peterson!" He called, and stuck the handle of his umbrella into the window; at which point the daughter of the family in the basement screamed. The man in the basement threw open the store door and called out, "Vigilante!" By the time he saw that it was the family of the head chamberlain, recognized them and let them in, the night watchman in the street blew his whistle, and the night watchman in the street next to him obliged, also blowing his whistle. Many people crowded to the window." Where is the fire? Where is the trouble?" They asked. All the time the head chamberlain had returned to his house and taken off his coat, they were still asking. As he took off his coat, he realized that the gate key was inside, not in his coat pocket, but in the lining. It had leaked down through a hole in the coat pocket where it should not have been.
From that night on, the gate key took on a special and tremendous significance. Not only when he went out at night, but when he sat at home, the chamberlain had to show that he was clever enough to let the key answer the questions.
He thought of the most reasonable answers, but let the key to show, and finally even he believed in these answers. But the young apothecary, who was a close relative of the head chamberlain, was not convinced.
That apothecary had a very clever mind, a very critical mind. He wrote book and theater reviews when he was still a schoolboy, but not by name, which is important. He is what they call an auror, but he doesn't believe in elves at all, especially key elves.
"Yes, I believe, I believe," he said, "Mr. Chief Chamberlain of Dover, I believe in the gate-key genie and all the key genies, with such devotion, as I believe in all those new sciences (12) that are beginning to go out of fashion nowadays: what with the table-turning method, and what with the spirits of old and new furniture. Have you heard of it? I have heard of it! I have doubts. You know I am a skeptic. But on reading a terrible story in a very credible foreign newspaper, my attitude changed. The chamberlain! You believe it or not. Yes, I'll tell the story as I read it. Two clever children had seen their parents awaken the spirit of a large dining room table. One day, when the two little ones were alone in the house, they used the same method to bring an old cabinet to life. The cabinet came to life, its spirit was awakened, but it could not stand the command of the children. The cabinet stood up. It rattled, pushed the drawer open, and with its own two wooden feet loaded the children into each of the cabinet drawers. The cabinet then ran out the open door with them in it, down the steps, down the street, and down to the river, where it jumped out and the two children drowned. The two little bodies went into Christianity, but the cabinet was taken to court and convicted of murdering young children and burned alive in the square. I've read about it!" So said the apothecary, "Read it in a foreign paper; I didn't make it up myself. The key will prove that I am telling the truth! I can swear to it!"
The head chamberlain thought that such strange talk was too rough a joke, and the two of them were always at loggerheads about the key. The apothecary knew nothing about keys. The head chamberlain was progressing in his knowledge of keys. Keys became a source of fun and wisdom for him.
One night, the head chamberlain was getting ready for bed. He was already half undressed when there was a knock on the door of the aisle, from the man who had come so late from the house where he lived in the basement. He, too, was half undressed, but he said he had had a sudden thought which he feared he would forget after the night.
"I'm going to talk about my daughter Lotte Lennie. She is a beautiful girl and she has been confirmed. Now I want to place her properly."
"I'm not a widower yet!" The chief chamberlain said, with a faint smile, "And I have no son who could take her as his wife!"
"You know me, Chief Chamberlain!" The man in the basement said." She plays the piano and sings. You can hear the sound of the piano from about here. You do not fully understand what else the girl can do. She can imitate the speech and movements of all kinds of people. She's a natural for the theater, and it's a good way out for decent girls from good families, who can marry men with titles. But neither Lotte Lennie nor I ever thought of it that way. She plays the piano! So not long ago I went to a vocal school with her. She sang, but she lacked the kind of bass that ladies are supposed to have, and she didn't have the canary-like cry in that register that people demand as a must for female singers, so the people at the school advised her not to think of going that way. Oh, I then thought, if she can't be a singer, she can be an actress, anyone who can enunciate. To-day I spoke to the man who is known to people as the director.' Does she read many books?' He asked.' 'No,' I said, 'not read anything!' -- 'Much reading is necessary for a woman artist!' He said. I thought it was not too late for her, so I went home. She could, I suppose, go to a library that rents out books, and read them there; but as I sat undressing this evening, it occurred to me: why should I go to rent books when I have somewhere to borrow them? The head chamberlain's house is full of books; let her read them; there are enough for her, and she can surely borrow them for free!"
"Lotte Lennie is a good girl!" The chief chamberlain said, "A beautiful girl! She should have books to read. But does she have what people call aura, that is, natural talent - genius? And, which is just as important, does she have luck?"
"She's won the lottery twice," said the man in the basement, "once she got a closet, and once she got six bedding sets. I'd say that's luck, and she's got that kind of luck!"
"I'll ask for the key!" The head chamberlain said.
He put the key on the index finger of his right hand, and then on the man's right index finger, and let the key turn, showing letter after letter.
The key said, "Victory and Luck!" In this way, Lotte Lennie's future was decided.
The chief chamberlain immediately gave her two books to read: the Divik (13) and K?nig's (14) Interpersonal Communication.
From that night on, a close relationship began between Lotte Lennie and the chamberlain's family. She often went to the house of the head chamberlain, who found her to be a very intelligent girl. She trusted him with the keys. Mrs. Chief Chamberlain, on the other hand, found her childish naivety in the kind of unconscious ignorance that flowed from her at all times. The couple liked her in their own different ways, and she liked them in different ways.
"It smells good upstairs!" Lotte Lennie said.
There was a scent wafting down the hallway upstairs, and the head chamberlain's wife had put out a whole barrel of Gloucester apples (15), which smelled like apples. All the houses had a hint of rose and lavender.
"It's wonderful!" Lotte Lennie said. The head chamberlain's wife always had many flowers on display, and her heart was filled with joy at the sight of them. Yes, even in the harsh winter season, the lilac and cherry branches in here bloomed. Those bald branches that were cut and stuck in water soon sprouted and blossomed in the warmth of the house." You probably thought that all those bald branches were dead. But look how well it grew back from the dead!"
"I hadn't thought of that at all before!" Lotte Lennie said." Nature is marvelous!"
The head chamberlain showed her his "Book of Keys," in which were written many strange things that the keys had told. Even when the maid's lover came to see her one night, half an apple cake was missing from the cupboard.
The head chamberlain asked his own key, "Who ate the apple cake, the cat or the maid's lover?" The gate key replied, "The lover!" The chamberlain had expected this before he asked. The maid had to admit it: the damned key knew everything." Yes, you say it's strange!" The head chamberlain said." That key, that key, it says Lotte Lennie 'Victory and Luck!' --We'll see! --I can be sure of that."
"How nice!" Lotte Lennie said.
Mrs. Chief Chamberlain was less confident. But she did not voice her suspicions in her husband's presence; she was afraid he would hear them. Later, though, she told Lotte Lennie that when the head chamberlain was young, he was fascinated by the theater. If someone had pushed him in that direction at that time, he would have become an actor, but his family pushed him in the other direction. He wanted to be on the stage, and to do so he wrote a play.
"It's a big secret, I can tell you, little Lotte Lennie. That play was not badly written, and the Theater Royal staged it, but it was booed off the stage by the audience. I was his wife, and I knew him. And now you are going the same way;--I wish you all the best, but I don't believe it can be true; I don't believe in gate-keys."
Lotte Lennie, however, believed it could be done. She and the head chamberlain were united in their faith. Their hearts were sincerely connected.
The girl had several other skills that Mrs. Chief Chamberlain admired. Lotte Lennie could make starch out of potatoes, knit silk gloves out of old stockings, and put new silk facings on her old dancing shoes, even though she had the money to buy herself new dresses. She was like the grocery store owner said: silver coins in the desk drawer and stock in the till. She really could have made a wife for the apothecary, thought Mrs. Chief Chamberlain, but she didn't say so, and she didn't let the key say so. The apothecary was soon to make his home in a nearby city and run his own pharmacy.
Lotte Lennie was still reading Duvik and Knigge's Human Interaction. She kept those two books for two years, and one of them, "Duvik," she memorized, and she could recite all the roles. But she only wanted to play one of the roles, Duvik. She didn't want to perform in Kyoto yet; people in Kyoto were very jealous, and here they didn't want her. She wants to start her artistic career in a larger city.
Very peculiarly, that city is the same as the one in which the pharmacist - the youngest if not the youngest drugstore owner in town - has settled. The great, long-awaited night had come, and Lotte Lennie was to take the stage, to win the triumph and good fortune of which the Key had spoken. The head chamberlain was not there; he was sick in bed, and Mrs. Head Chamberlain tended him. He needed hot napkins and flowery tea; napkins wrapped around his waist and tea to drink into his stomach.
The couple did not watch the performance of Duvik, but the apothecary was present. He wrote a letter to his relative, Mrs. Chief Chamberlain, about the performance.
"The most brilliant thing was Duvik's crepe collar!" He wrote." If the key to the head chamberlain's gate had been in my pocket, I would have taken it out and shushed it a few times. She deserves it, and so does the key, which shamelessly lies to her about 'victory and luck!'"
The chief chamberlain read the letter. He thought it was utterly vicious language. He said that the apothecary had taken out his hatred of the Keys on this innocent girl. As soon as he was able to get out of bed and regain his health, he wrote a short letter to the apothecary, but it was full of evil words. The apothecary wrote back again, as if he had read nothing more than jokes and pleasantries.
He thanked the chamberlain for the contents of his letter, and for his contribution in kindly spreading the extremely valuable value and significance of the keys in the future. He then tells the chamberlain that he is writing a very thick novel about the Key, in addition to running the apothecary's business. The "gate key" is naturally the protagonist of the novel, and the head chamberlain's gate key is the prototype, which is prescient and has the ability to tell fortunes. All the other keys have to revolve around it. The old chamberlain's key, who knew the splendor of the court and its banquets; the small, delicate clock-opening key, which cost four cents a piece at the hardware store; the key to the sermon door, who saw a genie one night by sticking it in the keyhole of the church, and who regarded himself as a member of the clergy; and the keys to the dining-room, the woodshed, and the cellar, all appeared, curtsied, and revolved round the key to the gate. The bright sunlight shone it as bright as silver. The wind, the spirit of the world, blew into it, and so it whistled. It is the key of all keys, it is the key of the chief chamberlain, now it is the key of the gates of heaven, it is the key of the Pope, it is the (16) of "always right"!
"Vicious vilification!" The Chief Chamberlain said." Heavenly malignant vilification!" He and the apothecary never met again. -Oh, there was one other meeting, at the funeral of the chief chamberlain's wife.
She died first.
The house is filled with sorrow and thoughts of the dead. Even the cherry branches that were stuck in water and had sprouted and blossomed withered due to grief. They are forgotten and she no longer tends to them.
The head chamberlain and the apothecary, as the nearest relatives of the deceased, walked shoulder to shoulder behind her coffin. Here they have no time or mood to fight.
Lotte Lennie wrapped a black veil around the head chamberlain's hat. She had long since returned home. She had not triumphed or lucked out in the path of art. But it would come, and Lotte Lennie had a future. The key had said so, the chamberlain had said so. She went up to see him. They talked of the dead, they wept, Lotte Lennie was tender-hearted. They talked about art, and Lotte Lennie was firm.
"Stage life is wonderful!" She said, "but there's so much boredom and jealousy! I'd rather go my own way. First my own problems before talking about art!"
Knigge had spoken the truth when he talked about the chapter on actors (17), and she could see that Key was not speaking the truth. But she did not say to the chief chamberlain that she liked him.
The key became a comfort and something that amused him during his year of mourning. He asked questions of it, and it gave him answers to each of them. At the end of the year, on a very amorous evening, he was sitting with Lotte Lennie, and he asked the key, "If I were to marry, whom would I marry?"
Now no one pushed him, so he pushed the keys, "Lotte Lennie!" The words were spoken, and Lotte Lennie became Mrs. Chief Chamberlain.
"Victory and luck!"
These words have been said before - by the Key.
1) Folklore has it that the gates of heaven are guarded by St. Peter. See Make Something of It, note 6.
② A term of endearment for a wife.
③ It is customary in Europe to produce a "burlap book". This was done by printing on large sheets of paper, folding them and sending them to be bound, but not cutting out the folded areas (allowing the reader to do so). This saves a process and costs less. The same practice was done in China in the 1930s and 1940s.
④ Frederick VI, King of Denmark (1768-1839).
⑤ Funfory, a large amusement park in the center of Copenhagen. In the park there are small lakes, quiet paths, many restaurants with special characteristics; there are mime theaters, Chinese stages and concert halls. since the opening of Funfuri on August 15, 1843, for more than 150 years, it has been a favorite place for Danish people, and foreigners to Denmark are not without a visit here.
6 Kasino, a theater and amusement park in Copenhagen, was built in 1847 but was demolished in 1937.
7 Mutual Church Park, a cemetery in North Bridge. North Bridge was a suburb of Copenhagen at the beginning of the 19th century, but is now in the city. In those days, people from the city of Copenhagen used to go there for "excursions."
8 Frederiksberg Park, see note 33 of Lucky Lady's Slippers.
9 Sonsepe Casotti (1794-1826) was an Italian mime artist. He came to Denmark in 1800 and landed a performance in a theater near what was then a shooting gallery. Cassotti performed from November 1814 to February 1815 in Andersen's hometown of Odense. Andersen was 10 years old at the time and saw him perform, and it was precisely this play, Harlequin, Head of the Harvesters, that he saw. Harlequin is the generic name for the jolly clowns of Italian comedy.
⑩At that time, three of Copenhagen's four gates, the Amaal Gate, the West Gate, and the East Gate, were closed at 12 o'clock midnight, and the keys were to be handed over to Frederick VI at Amalieborg Palace, but as of 1821, people could enter the city through the North Gate after midnight on payment of two silver coins. (11) Below the hall-room floor (the first floor, as we say) of the Danish building was the basement. Sometimes the caretaker lived there (see The Gatekeeper's Son) and sometimes it was rented out to people who ran grocery stores.
(12) The "new science that went viral" refers to so-called spiritualism. That was the view of a man named Emanuel Svedenberg (1688-1772), which went viral in the United States around 1850. People who believe in spiritualism believe that everything has a "spirit."
(13) "Divik," a tragedy in five acts by Ole Samser (1759-1796).
(14) "Human Interaction," a book by the German author Adolf Knigge (1752-1795).
(15) "Glosten" is a city on the Danish peninsula of Jutland, which translates as "gray stone", also meaning gray fruit seeds. The apples there are of a very fine variety. The pronunciation of Grossen is very similar to that of Grafstein in Germany, and at that time, there was a bad trend of abusing the German language by referring to Grossen apples as Grafstein apples. Andersen here also has a taste for the pure national language.
16The Papal Senate of July 18, 1870, determined that the Pope was in no way in error.
(17) The reference here is to the following passage by K?nig about actors, "How about the majority of this group? Virtueless, uneducated, rootless or uneducated. The adventurers, the lowly, the immoral women, ...... can hardly keep from being swept down by the tide." (A Danish translation of this book is available from Harvorsen in 1869.)