Volume I Part 1 (1/2)

The Mealt

Vol I

”Venetian Years”

by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

CASANOVA AT DUX

An Unpublished Chapter of History, By Arthur Syh they have enjoyed the popularity of a bad reputation, have never had justice done to them by serious students of literature, of life, and of history One English writer, indeed, Mr

Havelock Ellis, has realised that 'there are few htful books in the world,' and he has analysed them in an essay on Casanova, published in Affirmations, with extreme care and remarkable subtlety

But this essay stands alone, at all events in English, as an attempt to take Casanova seriously, to show him in his relation to his time, and in his relation to human problems And yet these Memoirs are perhaps the most valuable docuhteenth century; they are the history of a unique life, a unique personality, one of the greatest of autobiographies; as a record of adventures, they arethan Gil Blas, or Monte Cristo, or any of the iinary travels, and escapes, and masquerades in life, which have been written in imitation of them They tell the story of a man who loved life passionately for its own sake: one to o in the world, but to whoives us the reat, vivid, intellectual face, full of fiery energy and calhter in one A scholar, an adventurer, perhaps a Cabalist, a busy stirrer in politics, a gamester, one 'born for the fairer sex,' as he tells us, and born also to be a vagabond; this man, who is remembered now for his written account of his own life, was that rarest kind of autobiographer, one who did not live to write, but wrote because he had lived, and when he could live no longer

And his Mehts, all thealmost accidental, upontwo-thirds of the eighteenth century Giacomo Casanova was born in Venice, of Spanish and Italian parentage, on April 2, 1725; he died at the Chateau of Dux, in Bohemia, on June 4, 1798 In that lifetime of seventy-three years he travelled, as his Meland, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Poland, Spain, Holland, Turkey; he met Voltaire at Ferney, Rousseau at Monte III in London, Louis XV at Fontainebleau, Catherine the Great at St Petersburg, Benedict XII at Rome, Joseph II at Vienna, Frederick the Great at Sans-Souci Imprisoned by the Inquisitors of State in the Piombi at Venice, he made, in 1755, the most famous escape in history His Memoirs, as we have the a safe conduct, and the pers He did return, as we know from docuent of the Inquisitors, and remained in their service from 1774 until 1782 At the end of 1782 he left Venice; and next year we find him in Paris, where, in 1784, he met Count Waldstein at the Venetian Ambassador's, and was invited by him to become his librarian at Dux He accepted, and for the fourteen re years of his life lived at Dux, where he wrote his Me was heard of the Mene, in his own Memoirs, tells us that Casanova had read to him, and in which he found 'du dyamatique, de la rapidite, du comique, de la philosophie, des choses neuves, sublimes, iniiolini brought to the publishi+ng house of Brockhaus, in Leipzig, a manuscript entitled Histoire deof Casanova This , is written on foolscap paper, rather rough and yellow; it is written on both sides of the page, and in sheets or quires; here and there the paging shows that soes have been omitted, and in their place are smaller sheets of thinner and whiter paper, all in Casanova's handso Thewith the twelve voluinal edition; and only in one place is there a gap

The fourth and fifth chapters of the twelfth voluinal edition points out, adding: 'It is not probable that these two chapters have been withdrawn fro leads us to believe that the author himself suppressed the the found time to do so' The manuscript ends abruptly with the year 1774, and not with the year 1797, as the title would lead us to suppose

This inal state, has never been printed Herr Brockhaus, on obtaining possession of the manuscript, had it translated into German by Wilhelm Schutz, but with many omissions and alterations, and published this translation, volume by volume, from 1822 to 1828, under the title, 'Aus den Mealt' While the German edition was in course of publication, Herr Brockhaus eue, a professor of the French language at Dresden, to revise the original orous, but at ti to his own notions of elegant writing, suppressing passages which seemed too free-spoken fro the na those names by initials This revised text was published in twelve volumes, the first two in 1826, the third and fourth in 1828, the fifth to the eighth in 1832, and the ninth to the twelfth in 1837; the first four bearing the i and Ponthieu et Cie at Paris; the next four the imprint of Heideloff et Ca but 'A Bruxelles' The volumes are all uniform, and were all really printed for the fir the real text, is the only authoritative edition, and hout this article will always be to this edition

In turning over the , I read soretted their suppression; but Herr Brockhaus, the present head of the firm, assured me that they are not really very considerable in nue, however, to the vivacity of the whole narrative, by the persistent alterations of M Laforgue, is incalculable I coes, and found scarcely three consecutive sentences untouched Herr Brockhaus (whose courtesy I cannot sufficiently acknowledge) was kind enough to have a passage copied out for me, which I afterwards read over, and checked word by word In this passage Casanova says, for instance: 'Elle venoit presque tous les jours lui faire une belle visite' This is altered into: 'Cependant chaque jour Therese venait lui faire une visite' Casanova says that some one 'avoit, comme de raison, forme le projet d'allier Dieu avec le diable'

This is made to read: 'Qui, comme de raison, avait saintement forme le projet d'allier les interets du ciel aux oeuvres de ce monde' Casanova tells us that Therese would not commit a mortal sin 'pour devenir reine du ue 'Il ne savoit que lui dire' becomes 'Dans cet etat de perplexite;' and so forth It must, therefore, be realized that the Me of the vivid colours of the original

When Casanova's Memoirs were first published, doubts were expressed as to their authenticity, first by Ugo Foscolo (in the Westminster Review, 1827), then by Querard, supposed to be an authority in regard to anonys, finally by Paul Lacroix, 'le bibliophile Jacob', who suggested, or rather expressed his 'certainty,'

that the real author of the Memoirs was Stendhal, whose 'nise on every page

This theory, as foolish and as unsupported as the Baconian theory of Shakespeare, has been carelessly accepted, or at all events accepted as possible, by ood scholars who have never taken the trouble to look into the matter for themselves It was finally disproved by a series of articles of Armand Baschet, entitled 'Preuves curieuses de l'authenticite des Mealt,' in 'Le Livre,' January, February, April and May, 1881; and these proofs were further corroborated by two articles of Alessandro d'Ancona, entitled 'Un Avventuriere del Secolo XVIII, in the 'Nuovo Antologia,' February 1 and August 1, 1882 Baschet had never himself seen the manuscript of the Memoirs, but he had learnt all the facts about it from Messrs

Brockhaus, and he had hi to Casanova in the Venetian archives A similar examination was made at the Frari at about the sa at the tiain for myself There the arrest of Casanova, his imprisonment in the Piombi, the exact date of his escape, the name of the monk who accompanied him, are all authenticated by documents contained in the 'riferte' of the Inquisition of State; there are the bills for the repairs of the roof and walls of the cell from which he escaped; there are the reports of the spies on whose inforerous free-spokenness in ion and ht letters of Casanova to the Inquisitors of State, dating fro the Riferte dei Confidenti, or reports of secret agents; the earliest asking per inforard to the immoralities of the city, after his return there; all in the sa as the Memoirs Further proof could scarcely be needed, but Baschet has done more than prove the authenticity, he has proved the extraordinary veracity, of the Memoirs F W Barthold, in 'Die Geschichtlichen Personlichkeiten in J Casanova's Memoiren,' 2 vols, 1846, had already examined about a hundred of Casanova's allusions to well known people, showing the perfect exactitude of all but six or seven, and out of these six or seven inexactitudes ascribing only a single one to the author's intention Baschet and d'Ancona both carry on what Barthold had begun; other investigators, in France, Italy and Gers are now certain, first, that Casanova hih not textually in the precise form in which we have them; and, second, that as their veracity becomes more and more evident as they are confronted with more and more independent witnesses, it is only fair to suppose that they are equally truthful where the facts are such as could only have been known to Casanova himself

II

For more than two-thirds of a century it has been known that Casanova spent the last fourteen years of his life at Dux, that he wrote his Me all this ti the authenticity and the truthfulness of the Me for information about Casanova in various directions, and yet hardly any one has ever taken the trouble, or obtained the permission, to make a careful examination in precisely the one place where information was most likely to be found The very existence of the manuscripts at Dux was known only to a few, and to ood fortune was reserved for me, on my visit to Count Waldstein in Septe things contained in these h he had not himself visited Dux, had indeed procured copies of some of the manuscripts, a fehich were published by him in Le Livre, in 1887 and 1889 But with the death of Le Livre in 1889 the 'Casanova inedit' came to an end, and has never, so far as I know, been continued elsewhere Beyond the publication of these frag has been done with the iven by any one who has been allowed to examine them

For five years, ever since I had discovered the docuo to Dux; and in 1899, when I was staying with Count Lutzow at Zampach, in Bohemia, I found the way kindly opened for me Count Waldstein, the present head of the family, with extreme courtesy, put all his manuscripts at my disposal, and invited me to stay with hi of the day that I reached Dux He had left everything ready for me, and I was shown over the castle by a friend of his, Dr Kittel, whose courtesy I should like also to acknowledge After a hurried visit to the castle we started on the long drive to Oberleutensdorf, a smaller Schloss near Ko The air was sharp and bracing; the two Russian horses flew like the wind; I hirled along in an unfae country, black with coal h dark pine woods, where a wild peasantry dwelt in littletowns Here and there, a few men and women passed us on the road, in their Sunday finery; then a long space of silence, and ere in the open country, galloping between broad fields; and always in a haze of lovely hills, which I saw

The return to Dux was like a triuh the market-place filled with people coetables strewn in heaps all over the ground, on the rough paving stones, up to the great gateway of the castle, leaving but just rooh their : all Bohe, but this one was like a royal palace Set there in the midst of the town, after the Boheardens, as if it were in thecorridor after corridor; everywhere there were pictures, everywhere portraits of Wallenstein, and battle-scenes in which he led on his troops The library, which was fored, by Casanova, and which remains as he left it, contains some 25,000 volumes, some of them of considerable value; one of the most famous books in Bohemian literature, Skala's History of the Church, exists in manuscript at Dux, and it is from this manuscript that the two published volumes of it were printed

The library for of the castle The first rooed, in a decorative way, covering the ceiling and the walls with strange patterns The second room contains pottery, collected by Casanova's Waldstein on his Eastern travels The third room is full of curious s in ivory Finally, we come to the library, contained in the two innermost rooms The book-shelves are painted white, and reach to the low-vaulted ceilings, which are ashed At the end of a bookcase, in the corner of one of the s, hangs a fine engraved portrait of Casanova

After I had been all over the castle, so long Casanova's home, I was taken to Count Waldstein's study, and left there with the h to contain foolscap paper, lettered on the back: 'Grafl Waldstein-Wartenberg'sches Real Fideicommiss Dux-Oberleutensdorf: Handschriftlicher Nachlass Casanova'

The cases were arranged so as to stand like books; they opened at the side; and on opening them, one after another, I found series after series of ether, after soeneralised description of contents The greater part of the , which I could see gradually beginning to get shaky with years Most ritten in French, a certain nuue in the library, though said to be by hi Perhaps it was taken down at his dictation

There were also some copies of Italian and Latin poe bundles of letters addressed to hi over more than thirty years Al