[T]he Berlin public was content to put up with him [Herr Fricke]. It did more; it liked him, and virtually endorsed his chronic discordances. The professional critics treated him with undisguised tenderness; society dilettanti shrugged their shoulders whenever I ventured to utter a mild protest against his faulty intonation, and replied, "But he looks so well on the stage; he is such an intelligent, trustworthy actor; besides, where can we find a better than he in Germany now-a-days?