1885.03.19 English

March 19, 1885

Having had no word from my exalted director since Christmas Eve, he showed up here some eight days ago accompanied by professor Steenberg. For the last two months he has been most inoffensive; but I hear nothing about the fate of the complaint – whether he has hidden it or perchance is stowing it away for some future use ? ! –

Otherwise, I am longing awfully to see you and talk to you.

Do. Do. Your dear wife and Do. Do. + Do. Do. My dear wife

                        Your devoted

                        R. Malling Hansen

Otherwise, the machine is excellent.

SA: We don’t know for sure to whom this hand-written letter is addressed, since it does not appear from the content. But evidently the recipient is a very close and good friend of Malling-Hansen, and thus it is a reasonable assumption that it was addressed to director Erik Ritzau or to journalist Edgar Collin. “My exalted director”, as RMH puts it, refers to the relatively recently appointed director of the Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute, F. Wolfhagen, chamberlain, who was appointed after J.P. Trap fell ill and passed away on 21 January 1885. RMH had enjoyed a very good cooperation with J.P.Trap and had been allowed to manage the administration and leadership at the institute on the condition that he kept Trap informed about important issues and decisions – he even had permission to open mail addressed to the director and to decide which part of the correspondence should be passed on to him. Wolfhagen put an abrupt end to this division of responsibilities, and immediately an irreconcilable conflict broke out between RMH and Wolfhagen, causing RMH to lodge a formal complaint to his superiors. The result of the complaint was that Wolfhagen’s views were in principle accepted, but disapproval was expressed with the director on account of his unnecessarily provocative behavior towards Malling-Hansen.

When RMH finishes his letter with “Do.Do your dear wife” I take it that it refers to the previous sentence, in which RMH writes about his longing to see and talk to his friend and ditto ditto his wife – he is also looking forward to seeing and talking to the wife of his friend. The meaning of “Do. Do. + Do. Do. My dear wife” would then be that RMH’s wife is longing to see and to talk to both the friend and his wife. RMH was sometimes fond of playing with words!