Old Age and Death | Page 5

to him it is empty. Worse still: his portrait is missing from his
room, and is discovered 'salement placarde a la porte des lieux
d'aisance'!
Five more years of life remained to him. They were passed in such
petty mortifications as we have narrated, in grieving over his 'afreuse
vieillesse', and in laments over the conquest of his native land Venice,
once so splendid and powerful. His appetite began to fail, and with it
failed his last source of pleasure, so death came to him somewhat as a
release. He received the sacraments with devotion, exclaimed,--
"Grand Dieu, et vous tous temoins de ma mort, j'ai vecu en philosophe,

et je meurs en Chretien," and so died.
It was a quiet ending to a wonderfully brilliant and entirely useless
career. It has been suggested that if the age in which Casanova lived
had been less corrupt, he himself might have used his all but universal
talents to some advantage, but to our mind Casanova would always
have remained Casanova. He came of a family of adventurers, and the
reader of his Memoirs will remark how he continually ruined his
prospects by his ineradicable love for disreputable company. His
"Bohemianism" was in his blood, and in his old age he regrets--not his
past follies, but his inability to commit folly any longer. Now and again
we are inclined to pronounce Casanova to be an amiable man; and if to
his generosity and good nature he had added some elementary
knowledge of the distinction between right and wrong, he might
certainly have laid some claim to the character. The Prince de Ligne
draws the following portrait of him under the name of Aventuros:
"He would be a handsome man if he were not ugly; he is tall and
strongly built, but his dark complexion and his glittering eyes give him
a fierce expression. He is easier to annoy than amuse; he laughs little
but makes others laugh by the peculiar turn he gives to his conversation.
He knows everything except those matters on the knowledge of which
he chiefly prides himself, namely, dancing, the French language, good
taste, and knowledge of the world. Everything about him is comic,
except his comedies; and all his writings are philosophical, saving
those which treat of philosophy. He is a perfect well of knowledge, but
he quotes Homer and Horace ad nauseam."

SUPPLEMENT TO
THE MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA DE SEINGALT
Containing an Outline of Casanova's career from the year 1774, when
his own Memoirs abruptly end, until his death in 1798

PART THE FIRST
VENICE 1774-1782
CASANOVA'S RETURN TO VENICE
Thus Casanova ended his Memoirs, concluding his narrative with his
sojourn at Trieste, in January 1774, where he had remained, except for

a few excursions, since the 15th November 1772. He was forty-nine
years of age. Since his unfortunate experiences in England, the loss of
his fortune and the failure of his efforts to obtain congenial and
remunerative employment in Germany or Russia, he had come to
concentrate his efforts on a return to his native city.
Of his faithful friends, the nobles Bragadin, Barbaro and Dandolo, the
first had died in 1767, having gone into debt "that I might have
enough," sending Casanova, from his death-bed, a last gift of a
thousand crowns. Barbaro who had died also, in 1771, left Casanova a
life-income of six sequins a month. The survivor, Dandolo, was poor,
but until his death, he also gave Casanova a monthly provision of six
sequins. However, Casanova was not without influential friends who
might not only obtain a pardon from the State Inquisitors but also assist
him to employment; and, in fact, it was through such influence as that
wielded by the Avogador Zaguri and the Procurator Morosini, that
Casanova received his pardon, and later, a position as "Confidant," or
Secret Agent, to the Inquisitors at Venice.
Casanova re-entered Venice the 14th September 1774 and, presenting
himself, on the 18th, to Marc-Antoine Businello, Secretary of the
Tribunal of the Inquisitors of State, was advised that mercy had been
accorded him by reason of his refutation of the History of the Venetian
Government by Amelot de la Houssaie which he had written during his
forty-two day imprisonment at Barcelona in 1768. The three Inquisitors,
Francesco Grimani, Francesco Sagredo and Paolo Bembo, invited him
to dinner to hear his story of his escape from The Leads.
In 1772, Bandiera, the Republic's resident at Ancona, drew this portrait
of Casanova:
"One sees everywhere this unhappy rebel against the justice of the
August Council, presenting himself boldly, his head carried high, and
well equipped. He is received in many houses and announces his
intention of going to Trieste and, from there, of returning to Germany.
He is a man of forty years or more," [in