The Memoires of Casanova, Complete

J >> Jacques Casanova de Seingalt >> The Memoires of Casanova, Complete


On the insistence of Opiz, Casanova continued his correspondence, but he
passed over nothing more, neither in exact quotations from Latin authors,
nor solecisms, nor lame reasonings. He even reproached him for his poor
writing and did not cease joking at the philanthropic and amiable
sentiments Opiz loved to parade while at the same time keeping his
purse-strings tight. A number of quarreling letters followed, after which
the correspondence came to an end. One of Casanova's last letters, that
of the 2nd February 1794, concludes: "One day M. de Bragadin said to me:
'Jacques, be careful never to convince a quibbler, for he will become
your enemy.' After this wise advice I avoided syllogism, which tended
toward conviction. But in spite of this you have become my enemy. . . ."

Among the Casanova manuscripts at Dux was one giving his final comment on
his relations with Opiz. Accusing Opiz of bringing about a quarrel,
Casanova nevertheless admits that he himself may not be blameless, but
lays this to his carelessness. "I have a bad habit," he writes, "of not
reading over my letters. If, in re-reading those I wrote to M. Opiz, I
had found them bitter, I would have burned them." Probably Casanova
struck the root of the matter in his remark, "Perfect accord is the first
charm of a reciprocal friendship." The two men were primarily of so
different a temperament, that they apparently could not long agree even
on subjects on which they were most in accord.

The complete correspondence is of very considerable interest.




V -- PUBLICATIONS

In 1786, Casanova published 'Le soliloque d'un penseur', in which he
speaks of Saint-Germain and of Cagliostro. On the 23rd December 1792,
Zaguri wrote Casanova that Cagliostro was in prison at San Leo. "Twenty
years ago, I told Cagliostro not to set his foot in Rome, and if he had
followed this advice he would not have died miserably in a Roman prison."

In January 1788, appeared 'Icosameron' a romance in five volumes,
dedicated to Count Waldstein, which he describes as "translated from the
English." This fanciful romance, which included philosophic and
theological discussions, was the original work of Casanova and not a
translation. It was criticized in 1789 by a literary journal at Jena.
Preserved at Dux were several manuscripts with variants of 'Icosameron'
and also an unpublished reply to the criticism.

In 1788 Casanova published the history of his famous flight
from "The Leads". An article on this book appeared in the German
'Litteratur-Zeitung', 29th June 1789: "As soon as the history was
published and while it was exciting much interest among us and among our
neighbors, it was seen that other attempts at flight from prisons would
make their appearance. The subject in itself is captivating; all
prisoners awake our compassion, particularly when they are enclosed in a
severe prison and are possibly innocent . . . . The history with which we
are concerned has all the appearances of truth; many Venetians have
testified to it, and the principal character, M. Casanova, brother of the
celebrated painter, actually lives at Dux in Bohemia where the Count
Waldstein has established him as guardian of his important library."

In July 1789 there was discovered, among the papers of the Bastille, the
letter which Casanova wrote from Augsburg in May 1767 to Prince Charles
of Courlande on the subject of fabricating gold. Carrel published this
letter at once in the third volume of his 'Memoirs authentiques et
historiques sur la Bastille'. Casanova kept a copy of this letter and
includes it in the Memoirs.

In October 1789, Casanova wrote M. Opiz that he was writing to a
professor of mathematics [M. Lagrange] at Paris, a long letter in
Italian, on the duplication of the cube, which he wished to publish. In
August 1790, Casanova published his 'Solution du Probleme Deliaque
demontree and Deux corollaires a la duplication de hexadre'. On the
subject of his pretended solution of this problem in speculative
mathematics, Casanova engaged with M. Opiz in a heated technical
discussion between the 16th September and 1st November 1790. Casanova
sought vainly to convince Opiz of the correctness of his solution.
Finally, M. Opiz, tired of the polemics, announced that he was leaving on
a six-weeks tour of inspection and that he would not be able to occupy
himself with the duplication of the cube for some time to come. On the
1st November, Casanova wished him a pleasant journey and advised him to
guard against the cold because "health is the soul of life."

In 1797, appeared the last book published during Casanova's lifetime, a
small work entitled: 'A Leonard Snetlage, docteur en droit de
l'Universite de Goettingue, Jacques Casanova, docteur en droit de
l'Universite de Padoue'. This was a careful criticism of the neologisms
introduced into French by the Revolution. In reference to Casanova's
title of "Doctor," researches by M. Favoro at the University of Padua had
failed to establish this claim, although, in the Memoirs Casanova had
written:

"I remained at Padua long enough to prepare myself for the Doctor's
degree, which I intended to take the following year." With this devil of
a man, it is always prudent to look twice before peremptorily questioning
the truth of his statement. And in fact, the record of Casanova's
matriculation was discovered by Signor Bruno Brunelli.




VI -- SUMMARY of MY LIFE

The 2nd November, 1797, Cecilia Roggendorff wrote to Casanova: "By the
way, how do you call yourself, by your baptismal name? On what day and in
what year were you born? You may laugh, if you wish, at my questions, but
I command you to satisfy me . . ." To this request, Casanova responded
with:

"Summary of My Life:--my mother brought me into the world at Venice on
the 2nd April, Easter day of the year 1725. She had, the night before, a
strong desire for crawfish. I am very fond of them.

"At baptism, I was named Jacques-Jerome. I was an idiot until I was
eight-and-a-half years old. After having had a hemorrhage for three
months, I was taken to Padua, where, cured of my imbecility, I applied
myself to study and, at the age of sixteen years I was made a doctor and
given the habit of a priest so that I might go seek my fortune at Rome.

"At Rome, the daughter of my French instructor was the cause of my being
dismissed by my patron, Cardinal Aquaviva.

"At the age of eighteen years, I entered the military service of my
country, and I went to Constantinople. Two years afterward, having
returned to Venice, I left the profession of honor and, taking the bit in
my teeth, embraced the wretched profession of a violinist. I horrified my
friends, but this did not last for very long.

"At the age of twenty-one years, one of the highest nobles of Venice
adopted me as his son, and, having become rich, I went to see Italy,
France, Germany and Vienna where I knew Count Roggendorff. I returned to
Venice, where, two years later, the State Inquisitors of Venice, for just
and wise reasons, imprisoned me under The Leads.

"This was the state prison, from which no one had ever escaped, but, with
the aid of God, I took flight at the end of fifteen months and went to
Paris. In two years, my affairs prospered so well that I became worth a
million, but, all the same, I went bankrupt. I made money in Holland;
suffered misfortune in Stuttgart; was received with honors in
Switzerland; visited M. de Voltaire; adventured in Genoa, Marseilles,
Florence and in Rome where the Pope Rezzonico, a Venetian, made me a
Chevalier of Saint-Jean-Latran and an apostolic protonotary. This was in
the year 1760.

"In the same year I found good fortune at Naples; at Florence I carried
off a girl; and, the following year, I was to attend the Congress at
Augsburg, charged with a commission from the King of Portugal. The
Congress did not meet there and, after the publication of peace, I passed
on into England, which great misfortunes caused me to leave in the
following year, 1764. I avoided the gibbet which, however, should not
have dishonored me as I should only have been hung. In the same year I
searched in vain for fortune at Berlin and at Petersburg, but I found it
at Warsaw in the following year. Nine months afterwards, I lost it
through being embroiled in a pistol duel with General Branicki; I pierced
his abdomen but in eight months he was well again and I was very much
pleased. He was a brave man. Obliged to leave Poland, I returned to Paris
in 1767, but a 'lettre de cachet' obliged me to leave and I went to Spain
where I met with great misfortunes. I committed the crime of making
nocturnal visits to the mistress of the 'vice-roi', who was a great
scoundrel.

"At the frontiers of Spain, I escaped from assassins only to suffer, at
Aix, in Provence, an illness which took me to the edge of the grave,
after spitting blood for eighteen months.

"In the year 1769, I published my Defense of the Government of Venice, in
three large volumes, written against Amelot de la Houssaie.

"In the following year the English Minister at the Court of Turin sent
me, well recommended, to Leghorn. I wished to go to Constantinople with
the Russian fleet, but as Admiral Orlof, would not meet my conditions, I
retraced my steps and went to Rome under the pontificate of Ganganelli.

"A happy love affair made me leave Rome and go to Naples and, three
months later, an unhappy love made me return to Rome. I had measured
swords for the third time with Count Medini who died four years ago at
London, in prison for his debts.

"Having considerable money, I went to Florence, where, during the
Christmas Festival, the Archduke Leopold, the Emperor who died four or
five years ago, ordered me to leave his dominions within three days. I
had a mistress who, by my advice, became Marquise de * * * at Bologna.

"Weary of running about Europe, I determined to solicit mercy from the
Venetian State Inquisitors. For this purpose, I established myself at
Trieste where, two years later, I obtained it. This was the 14th
September 1774. My return to Venice after nineteen years was the most
pleasant moment of my life.

"In 1782, I became embroiled with the entire body of the Venetian
nobility. At the beginning of 1783, I voluntarily left the ungrateful
country and went to Vienna. Six months later I went to Paris with the
intention of establishing myself there, but my brother, who had lived
there for twenty-six years, made me forget my interests in favor of his.
I rescued him from the hands of his wife and took him to Vienna where
Prince Kaunitz engaged him to establish himself. He is still there, older
than I am by two years.

"I placed myself in the service of M. Foscarini, Venetian Ambassador, to
write dispatches. Two years later, he died in my arms, killed by the gout
which mounted into his chest. I then set out for Berlin in the hope of
securing a position with the Academy, but, half way there, Count
Waldstein stopped me at Teplitz and led me to Dux where I still am and
where, according to all appearances, I shall die.

"This is the only summary of my life that I have written, and I permit
any use of it which may be desired.

"'Non erubesco evangelium'.

"This 17th November 1797.

"Jacques Casanova."

In reference to Casanova's ironic remark about his escape from England,
see his conversation, on the subject of "dishonor," with Sir Augustus
Hervey at London in 1763, which is given in the Memoirs.




VII -- LAST DAYS AT DUX

Scattered through the Memoirs are many of Casanova's thoughts about his
old age. Some were possibly incorporated in the original text, others
possibly added when he revised the text in 1797. These vary from
resignation to bitterness, doubtless depending on Casanova's state of
mind at the moment he wrote them:

"Now that I am seventy-two years old, I believe myself no longer
susceptible of such follies. But alas! that is the very thing which
causes me to be miserable."

"I hate old age which offers only what I already know, unless I should
take up a gazette."

"Age has calmed my passions by rendering them powerless, but my heart has
not grown old and my memory has kept all the freshness of youth."

"No, I have not forgotten her [Henriette]; for even now, when my head is
covered with white hair, the recollection of her is still a source of
happiness for my heart."

"A scene which, even now, excites my mirth."

"Age, that cruel and unavoidable disease, compels me to be in good
health, in spite of myself."

"Now that I am but the shadow of the once brilliant Casanova, I love to
chatter."

"Now that age has whitened my hair and deadened the ardor of my senses,
my imagination does not take such a high flight and I think differently."

"What embitters my old age is that, having a heart as warm as ever, I
have no longer the strength necessary to secure a single day as blissful
as those which I owed to this charming girl."

"When I recall these events, I grow young again and feel once more the
delights of youth, despite the long years which separate me from that
happy time."

"Now that I am getting into my dotage, I look on the dark side of
everything. I am invited to a wedding and see naught but gloom; and,
witnessing the coronation of Leopold II, at Prague, I say to myself,
'Nolo coronari'. Cursed old age, thou art only worthy of dwelling in
hell."

"The longer I live, the more interest I take in my papers. They are the
treasure which attaches me to life and makes death more hateful still."

And so on, through the Memoirs, Casanova supplies his own picture,
knowing very well that the end, even of his cherished memories, is not
far distant.

In 1797, Casanova relates an amusing, but irritating incident, which
resulted in the loss of the first three chapters of the second volume of
the Memoirs through the carelessness of a servant girl at Dux who took
the papers "old, written upon, covered with scribbling and erasures," for
"her own purposes," thus necessitating a re-writing, "which I must now
abridge," of these chapters. Thirty years before, Casanova would
doubtless have made love to the girl and all would have been forgiven.
But, alas for the "hateful old age" permitting no relief except
irritation and impotent anger.

On the 1st August, 1797, Cecilia Roggendorff, the daughter of the Count
Roggendorff [printed Roquendorf] whom Casanova had met at Vienna in 1753,
wrote: "You tell me in one of your letters that, at your death, you will
leave me, by your will, your Memoirs which occupy twelve volumes."

At this time, Casanova was revising, or had completed his revision of,
the twelve volumes. In July 1792, as mentioned above, Casanova wrote Opiz
that he had arrived at the twelfth volume. In the Memoirs themselves we
read, ". . . the various adventures which, at the age of seventy-two
years, impel me to write these Memoirs . . .," written probably during a
revision in 1797.

At the beginning of one of the two chapters of the last volume, which
were missing until discovered by Arthur Symons at Dux in 1899, we read:
"When I left Venice in the year 1783, God ought to have sent me to Rome,
or to Naples, or to Sicily, or to Parma, where my old age, according to
all appearances, might have been happy. My genius, who is always right,
led me to Paris, so that I might see my brother Francois, who had run
into debt and who was just then going to the Temple. I do not care
whether or not he owes me his regeneration, but I am glad to have
effected it. If he had been grateful to me, I should have felt myself
paid; it seems to me much better that he should carry the burden of his
debt on his shoulders, which from time to time he ought to find heavy. He
does not deserve a worse punishment. To-day, in the seventy-third year of
my life, my only desire is to live in peace and to be far from any person
who might imagine that he has rights over my moral liberty, for it is
impossible that any kind of tyranny should not coincide with this
imagination."

Early in February, 1798, Casanova was taken sick with a very grave
bladder trouble of which he died after suffering for three-and-a-half
months. On the 16th February Zaguri wrote: "I note with the greatest
sorrow the blow which has afflicted you." On the 31st March, after having
consulted with a Prussian doctor, Zaguri sent a box of medicines and he
wrote frequently until the end.

On the 20th April Elisa von der Recke, whom Casanova had met, some years
before, at the chateau of the Prince de Ligne at Teplitz, having returned
to Teplitz, wrote: "Your letter, my friend, has deeply affected me.
Although myself ill, the first fair day which permits me to go out will
find me at your side." On the 27th, Elisa, still bedridden, wrote that
the Count de Montboisier and his wife were looking forward to visiting
Casanova. On the 6th May she wrote, regretting that she was unable to
send some crawfish soup, but that the rivers were too high for the
peasants to secure the crawfish. "The Montboisier family, Milady Clark,
my children and myself have all made vows for your recovery." On the 8th,
she sent bouillon and madeira.

On the 4th June, 1798, Casanova died. His nephew, Carlo Angiolini was
with him at the time. He was buried in the churchyard of Santa Barbara at
Dux. The exact location of his grave is uncertain, but a tablet, placed
against the outside wall of the church reads:

JAKOB
CASANOVA
Venedig 1725 Dux 1798