"the King is the life of the company. I have operas and comedies, reviews and concerts, my studies and books: Berlin is fine, the princesses charming, the maids of honor handsome, BUT . . . !"
The magnificence of his style of living gradually began to fall off, and Frederick cut down his allowance of sugar, coffee and chocolate, and the philosopher stooped to pocketing candle-ends from the royal apartments. Voltaire began quarreling with others at the Court. Plots and intrigues, petty jealousies and rivalries began to make his life intolerable. He was mixed up in a discreditable affair connected with money matters which came out in a sordid dispute between him and a Jew named Hirsch. In fact, all the glamour was fading; the glitter was proving to be very far from gold. He never took the trouble to learn German, as French was the language of the Court and good German books were rare. Lessing, the founder of modern German literature, was still quite a young man. The two men met and made friends, but the inevitable quarrel soon separated them.
At last Voltaire became bored to death with correcting Frederick's verses: "See," he exclaimed when a batch was sent to him, "what a quantity of dirty linen the King has sent me to wash." The remark reached the royal ear, while on the other hand Voltaire was told that Frederick when speaking of him had said something about "sucking an orange and throwing away the rind." The finishing touch to the
