“They would willingly forgive you if they had the power to push you one side, and take your place. They are angry with you, because they envy you and are not accustomed to be esteemed. Our prince and ruler, as great a hero and king as he otherwise is, cares little for German poetry, and for all he would care, the Berlin authors might starve, one and all; 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.]