Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/212

 months he returned to Dresden. In 1728 he began to give lessons in Berlin to the Crown Prince, who played the flute when only eight years old. Quantz is the only flautist, so far as I know, mentioned in any great historical work. Carlyle tells us that Rentzel, the drill-master of the Prince's miniature soldier company, was a fine flute-player, which probably drew little Fritz's attention to the flute. The Queen arranged and paid for the lessons unknown to the King, as the latter considered music effeminate, classing his Court musicians with lacqueys, and forbade his son under severe penalties to play; "Fritz is a Querpfeifer and Poet, not a soldier," he would growl. At these clandestine lessons the Prince used to change his tight Frederick uniform for a gorgeous scarlet and gold dressing-gown. On one occasion he was nearly caught by his tyrannical father; there was only just time to hurry Quantz, with his music and flutes, into a closet used for firewood. His Majesty, by Heaven's express mercy, omitted to look into the closet, wherein poor Quantz spent a bad quarter of an hour, trembling in every limb. In 1741 he entered the service of Frederick, and spent the remainder of his life as Court Composer at Potsdam. His salary was £300 a year for life, 100 ducats for every flute he made for the King, and also 25 ducats for each of his flute compositions. He lived on terms of the closest intimacy and friendship with Frederick; they only once had a real quarrel, and even on that occasion the King admitted he was in the wrong. Quantz's decision on