ances were taxed, and
also, in 1714, tobacco. At last the poor comedians were likewise
obliged to pay a gulden for each representation, and even the quack and
eye doctors paid at each yearly market a few kreuzers, and heavy claims
were made on the Jews. It was long before either people or officials
could accustom themselves to the pressure of the new imposts; the
tariff and the mode of levying it were always being altered, and
frequently the governments saw with dissatisfaction their expectations
disappointed. On the impoverished people the pressure of the new taxes
fell very severely; loud and incessant were the complaints in the
popular literature.

Meanwhile the subject worked with the plough and the hammer; he sat at
the writing-desk, and saw around and over him everywhere the wheels of
the great state machine; he heard its clicking and creaking, and was
hindered, tormented, and endangered by its every movement. He lived
under it as a stranger, timid and suspicious. In about six hundred
great and small courts, he saw daily the splendid households of his
rulers, and the gold-embroidered dresses of the court people; the lace
of the lacqueys and the tufts of the footmen were to him objects of the
highest importance, his usual topic of discourse. When the ruling lord
kept a grand table, the citizens had sometimes the privilege of seeing
the court dine. When the court, forming a sledge party, or a so-called
_wirthschaft_,[75] drove through the streets in disguise, the subjects
might look on. In winter they might even themselves take a share in a
great masquerade, but a barrier was erected which separated the people
from the sports of the court. Once the prince had contended with the
citizens, shooting at the same target, and was only treated in the
jokes of the _pritschmeister_ with somewhat greater consideration. Now
the court were entirely separated from the people; and if a courtier
condescended to notice a citizen, it was generally no advantage to the
purse or family peace of the privileged one. Thus the poor citizen
acquired an abject feeling. To obtain an office or title which would
give him somewhat of this courtly power, became the object of his
ambition, and the same even with the artisan. In the five or six
hundred court establishments the desire for titles spread from the
nobles and officials down to the lowest class of the people. Shortly
before 1700 began the monstrous custom of giving court titles to the
a