Volume VI Part 108 (1/2)
Casanova complained of the Faulkircher incident to the mother of Count Waldstein, rote: ”I pity you, Monsieur, for being obliged to live a such people and in such evil coet that which he owes to hiive you all the satisfaction you wish” Also to his friend Zaguri, rote, the 16th March: ”I hope that the gout in your hand will not torment you any more
You have told ins: 'Two months have passed since an officer, who is at Vienna, insulted me!'
I cannot understand whether he rote you an insulting letter is at Vienna or whether he is at Dux When will the Count return?You should await his return because you would have, a to have recourse to other jurisdiction than his You say your letters have been intercepted?
Someone has put your portrait in the privy? The devil! It is a miracle that you have not killed someone Positively, I am curious to know the results and I hope that you make no mistakes in this affair which appears to ust 1792, or thereabouts, Da Ponte on his way to Dresden, visited Casanova at Dux, in the hope of collecting an old debt, but gave up this hope on realizing Casanova's limited resources In the winter of 1792-3 Da Ponte found hireat distress in Holland ”Casanova was the only man to whom I could apply,” he writes in his Meht to write hi him to send me some money on account of that which he still owedar prose, by a laconic billet which I transcribe: 'When Cicero wrote to his friends, he avoided telling them of his affairs'”
In May 1793, Da Ponte wrote from London: ”Count Waldstein has lived a very obscure life in London, badly lodged, badly dressed, badly served, always in cabarets, cafes, with porters, with rascals, withill leave out the rest He has the heart of an angel and an excellent character, but not so good a head as ours”
Toward the end of 1792, Cssanova wrote a letter to Robespierre, which, as he advises M Opiz, the 13th January 1793, occupied one hundred and twenty folio pages This letter was not to be found at Dux and it may possibly have been sent, or may have been destroyed by Casanova on the advice of Abbe O'Kelly Casanova's feelings were very bitter over the trial of Louis XVI, and in his letters to M Opiz he complained bitterly of the Jacobins and predicted the ruin of France Certainly, to Casanova, the French Revolution represented the complete overthrow of ust 1793, Wilhelmina Rietz, Countess Lichtenau (called the Po of Prussia) wrote to the librarian at Dux:
”Monsieur
”It seems i, whether he is in Europe, Africa, Aamiques If he is there, you are the only one who could insure his receiving the enclosed letter
”For my part, I have not yet had ti I do will assuredly be that
”Made herself to youryour very humble servant,
”Wilhelmina Rietz”
The allusions to a ”history” and to the 'Megamiques' in this letter refer to Casanova's romance, 'Icosameron'
About this ti been, at Paris, according to Da Ponte, concerned in planning the flight of Louis XVI, and in atteust, Casanova replied to the above letter:
”Madame,
”I handed the Count your letter twohim easily I told hio; but, as he begged to wait for the following ordinary, I did not insist The day before yesterday, he begged ain, but he did not find me so complaisant I respond to you, Mada to letters is extreed to it Although hehi Fair, with a hundred bad excuses which you will laugh at and pretend to believe good onesThis last ain has become immeasurable, and I will do my best to have Count Waldstein take oYou have given me an idea of Berlin far different than that the city left with oIf my 'Icosameron' interests you, I offer you its Spirit I wrote it here two years ago and I would not have published it if I had not dared hope that the Theological Censor would permit it At Berlin no one raised the least difficultyIf circumstances do not permit me to pay youyou here next year”
So his quarrel with M Opiz, Casanova evidently passed through a period of depression, as indicated by a manuscript at Dux, headed ”Short reflection of a philosopher who finds hi his own death,” and dated ”the 13th December 1793, the day dedicated to S Lucie, re life”
”Life is a burden towho preventswho enjoins s me only feeble pleasures and heavy pains? It is Reason Nature is a cohich, de only conservation, orderswhich gives me resemblance to God, which treads instinct under foot and which teacheswell considered the reasons It de silence on the Nature which opposes that action which alone could remedy all my ills
”Reason convinces iven me by God, by which I perceive that I am superior to all animals created in the world; for there is no ani itself, except the scorpion, which poisons itself, but only when the fire which surrounds it convinces it that it cannot save itself fro burned This animal slays itself because it fears fire more than death Reason tells ht to slay myself, with the divine oracle of Cen: 'Qui non potest vivere bene non vivat ht words have such power that it is impossible that a man to whom life is a burden could do other than slay hi them”
Certainly, however, Casanova did not deceive himself with these sophisms, and Nature, who for ifts on him, had her way
Over the end of the year, the two mathematicians, Casanova and Opiz, at the request of Count Waldstein, made a scientific examination of the reform of the calendar as decreed the 5th October 1793 by the National Convention
In January 1795, Casanova wrote to the Princess Lobkowitz to thank her for her gift of a little dog On the 16th the Princess wrote from Vienna:
”Monsieur,
”I a which I sent you when I learned of the death of your well-loved greyhound, knowing that she would nowhere be better cared for than with you, Monsieur I hope with all my heart that she has all the qualities which et the deceased”