ll; he would trouble himself no more about them than the flies
dancing in the sunlight."

"The great king is still the same, then? He will never know anything of
German literature?"

"No! he declares that it is the language of barbarians and
bear-catchers; scolds about us, and despises us, and yet knows as little
of us as the man in the moon. He adores his Voltaire. Old Fritz knows
the French poet by heart, but Lessing he knows nothing of. He abuses
'Goetz von Berlichingen,' and 'Werther's Sorrows.'"

"Oh! I know it all--I know the king's adjutant-general, von Siedlitz. I
often dine with him, and read aloud my poems to him, when he relates
to me what the king says to enrage me. You must know when I am angry
I speak in verse. I accustomed myself to it during my unhappy marriage
with the tailor Karsch. When he scolded, I answered in verse, and tried
to turn my thoughts to other things, and to make the most difficult
rhymes. As he was always scolding and quarrelling, I always spoke in
rhyme."

"And in this way you led a very poetical marriage?" smiled Goethe.

"Yes, indeed, poetical," she said, and her large brilliant eyes were
dimmed. "If it is true that tears are the baptism of poets, then I
was baptized daily for twelve years, and ought to be an extraordinary
poetess."

"That you are, indeed," said Goethe, "who would dispute it? You have
given evidence of great poetical talent, and I read your heroic poem
upon the Great Frederick with real delight."

"Do you know what he did?" she asked, bitterly. "I turned to him,
begging for assistance; for who should a poet turn to, but his God and
his king? Moreover, he had promised it to me personally."

"You have spoken with him, then, yourself?" asked Goethe.

"Yes, eight years ago; General von Siedlitz procured me an audience. The
king was very gracious, and among other things, asked me about my life;
and as I explained to him my poverty and want, he most kindly promised
to help me." [Footnote: This interview which Frau Karschin had with the
king is found in "Anecdotes and Traits of Character of Frederick the
Great." vol. ii., p. 72.]

"And did he not fulfil his promise?"

"No, had it been given to the least of the French writers he would have
kept it, but to a German poet it was not worth while. What is a native
poet to the great German king? A phantom that he knows not, and believes
not. As great as he is, the king showed himself very small to me. I sang
him as a