Edward Bruce Hamley

“ His intellect is at work incessantly; every drop of ink is a trait of wit from his pen. He declaimed his Mahomet to us—an admirable tragedy; he transported us out of ourselves; I could only admire him and hold my tongue. The Du Châtelet is lucky to have him; for, of the good things he flings out at random, a person who had no faculty but memory might make a brilliant book."
In the next three years Voltaire paid three other visits to Frederick. In December of the same year when they first met, he spent six days with the king at Reinsberg. ”

“ Just then came Frederick's invitation, which he showed to the Cardinal, expressing at the same time a wish to be of use to France at the Prussian Court. In these years the many-sided poet, seeing how few and hardly-won were the rewards of letters, how strong the vantage-ground that high office would give him against his enemies, was much disposed to try his fortune in diplomacy, especially with such an opening to that career as was offered by his intimacy with the most politic and most warlike sovereign then existing. ”

“ The enthusiasm for the author was unbounded—nothing like it had ever been witnessed in a French theatre: not content with summoning him to the front of the box, the audience insisted that the Duchess should kiss him, which favour she, urged by her mother-in-law, bestowed with charming grace. ”