Letter from Fromet to Moses Mendelssohn

Berlin, 18 July 1777 Berlin, 13 Tammuz 5537

Dear Moses, may you live,¹

I hope that my letter will find you happy and in good spirits in Königsberg. We are all, thank G-d, well and alive, and when you will receive this reassurance more often from me, you will also be happy and in good spirits on your journey.

There is very little news here. With the exception of Madame Flißen² having been delivered of a young daughter, everything is on the same old footing as when you left Berlin. So in order to tell you anything, I will have to make it a journal about how I am spending my time. That evening, when you left us, I was completely out of sorts. I quarreled with everybody in the house, until, eventually, Meyer Warburg arrived and wanted to say good-bye to you. When I told him that you had already left, you should have seen the expression on the face of fat Meyer. He stood before me like a pillar and displayed such anxiety that I had to laugh about it. Finally, after many pleas that he should get a grip on himself, I asked him to join me at table. After he had consumed a few pieces of fish and other good things his astonishment subsided and now he is wishing you, like all other people, a happy journey. After dinner our Brendel³ played for us on the piano for an hour. My brother-in-law R. Selig⁴ also came by that evening; and since it doesn’t cost him anything to pretend to me that he had come to say good-bye to you, I had to accept the compliment.

On Thursday, when I got up, many good friends were already with me to inquire if I had slept well. In the afternoon Mr. Lessing⁵ arrived and took me and Brendel and Reikl⁶ to have coffee with his wife. Professor Engel⁷ was there too. So we drank coffee and argued about the German and French troupes. Everyone claimed that it wouldn’t be right to be amused by such miserable actors.⁸ What do you think, dear Moses, did we do after coffee? We ladies went to the French comedy, the gentlemen to the German [theater]. And best of all, both parties were wonderfully entertained. I will even make an effort to go there more often with the children. I think this will be useful for our children. Brendel understood the comedy pretty well. And Reikl will now make an effort to learn to understand it, at least today she is sitting already with a French book. Yes, dear Moses, received visitors, went on a visit, went to the comedy, and yet, despite all of that: boredom, which I don’t feel at all when you are with me. You can believe that in these three days this is the first joyful hour that I am spending, speaking with you now. Give me the opportunity for such joy more often and write to me a lot. At the moment you can do nothing more beneficial for your Fromet.