Volume VI Part 106 (1/2)

3rd April 1784 ”I see with pleasure that you have gone to amuse yourself in company with two ladies and that you have traveled five posts to see the Emperor [Joseph II]You say that your fortune consists of one sequinI hope that you obtained permission to print your book, that you will send me the two hundred copies, and that I may be able to sell them ”

14th April 1784 ”You say that a e of death, that he is a very wretched aniret that I a Festival of the Ascension

that you hope to seeme that at Vienna a balloon was ht be that you would go up also”

28th April 1784 ”I see, to ret, that you have been in bed with your usual ailment [hemorrhoids] But I ao to the bathsI have been discouraged in seeing that you have not come to Venice because you have no ood letter, enclosing a bill of exchange, which I will go and have paid”

5th May 1784 ”I went to the house of M Francesco Manenti, at S Polo di Cahteen pieces of ten lires eachI figure that you o up in a balloon and that, if the wind is favorable, you will go in the air to Trieste and then froreat regret, that you are in poor health and still short of moneyYou say that you need twenty sequins and that you have only twenty trariI hope that your book is printed ”

29th May 1784 ”I note with pleasure that you are going to take the baths; but I regret that this treatment enfeebles and depresses you It reassures me that you do not fail in your appetite nor your sleep

I hope I will not hear you say again that you are disgusted with everything, and no longer in love with lifeI see that for you, at this mo is so dear in the city where you are, for at Venice also one pays dearly and everything is priced beyond reach”

Zaguri wrote Casanova the 12th May, that he had olfieri casino And on the 2nd June Casanova, doubtless feeling his helplessness in the matter of money, and the insufficiency of his occasional remittances, and suspicious of Francesca's loyalty, wrote her a letter of renunciation Then cahteen ain

On the 12th June 1784, Francesca replied: ”I could not expect to convey to you, nor could you figure, the sorrow that triesthat you will not occupy yourself any more with meI hid from you that I had been with that woman who lived with us, with her coolfceristes Although I went to this Acadenity, I did not want to write you for fear you would scold me That is the only reason, and hereafter youyou to forgiveI have never written for fear that you would be angry with o, your books which were on the mezzanine were sold to a library for the suent need It was my mother who did it ”

26th June 1784 ” Mme Zenobia [de Monti] has asked me if I would enjoy her company Certain that you would consent I have allowed her to come and live with me She has sympathy for me and has always loved reatly disturbs ood post I have sent you three letters, with this one, and you have not replied to any of the offended atwhich you learned froht have seen, from my last letter, that I have written you all the truth aboutit before Without you and your help, God knoill become of us For the rent of your chaht lires aher meals But what can one do with thirteen lires!I am afflicted and mortifiedDo not abandon me”

V -- LAST DAYS AT VIENNA

In 1785, at Vienna, Casanova ran across Costa, his for ”diamonds, watches, snuffbox, linen, rich suits and a hundred louis” ”In 1785, I found this runagate at Vienna He was then Count Erdich's man, and e come to that period, the reader shall hear what I did”

Casanova did not reach this period, in writing his Meiven by Da Ponte, as present at it, in his Memoirs Costa had met with many misfortunes, as he told Casanova, and had hied, but according to Da Ponte, was dissuaded from this by counter accusations made by Costa

Da Ponte's narration of the incident is brilliant and aerated: ”Strolling onein the Graben with Casanova, I suddenly saw hirind his teeth, twist hi himself away fro with a very loud voice: 'Murderer, I have caught thee'

A crowd having gathered as a result of this strange act and yell, I approached theht Casanova's hand and almost by force I separated him from the fray He then told estures, and said that his antagonist was Gioachino Costa, by whoh he had been forced to become a servant by his vices and bad practices, and was at that very tientleman, was more or less of a poet He was, in fact, one of those who had honored me with their satire, when the Emperor Joseph selected me as poet of his theater Costa entered a cafe, and while I continued to ith Casanova, wrote and send hi verses:

”'Casanova, make no outcry; You stole, indeed, as well as I; You were the one who first taught hly

Silence your wisest course will be'

”These verses had the desired effect After a brief silence, Casanova laughed and then said softly in ht' He went into the cafe and ether cal hands repeatedly and seely calm and friendly Casanova returned to e coincidence, represented Mercury, the God-protector of thieves This was his greatest valuable, and it was all that was left of the immense booty, but represented the character of the two restored friends, perfectly”

Da Ponte precedes this account with a libellous narrative of Casanova's relations with the Marquise d'Urfe, even stating that Casanova stole from her the jewels stolen in turn by Costa, but, as M Maynial remarks, we may attribute this perverted account ”solely to the rancour and antipathy of the narrator” It is htened Costa alrio, since there was no remedy to Casanova's benefit, for his former rascality Casanova's own brief, anticipatory account is given in his Me his Meo, if it had not been for el, I would have foolishly irl, hom I had fallen in love” In which connection, his re: ”I have loved women even to madness, but I have always loved liberty better; and whenever I have been in danger of losing it, fate has co, thoughtless girl” has been impossible, M Rava believes her to be ”C M,” the subject of a poem found at Dux, written in duplicate, in Italian and French, and headed ”Giacomo Casanova, in love, to C M”

”When, Catton, to your sight is shown the love Which allall pleasure's sharpest joys and fears, Burning oneyou with tears, Giving each char to touch at once a thousand blisses And, at the ones beyondthese char Until, destroyed by excesses of pleasure, Finding no words of love nor anything To express hs and obscure : Ah! Then you think to read ns impart Be not deceived These transports, ahs, Of all the fire which devours htest tokens be”