Casanova, the Scamp of.the Eighteenth Century

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 18

Casanova, the Scamp of. the Eighteenth Century

Casanova was talking to the Emperorl Joseph 11. "I don't think much of people who buy titles," said the Emperor. "And what about those who sell them, sire 1" You have in the charming impudence of that answer a taste of the quality that was Casanova, the tempestuous lover of women, the amateur magician, the iron gambler, the faker of bills, the scholar who could—anddid—combine philosophising with seduction, writes Anthony Praga in the "Sunday Express." In a word, one of the supreme figures and symbols of that intellectual and moral carnival called the eighteenth century. Supreme in this —not that he was highly admirable, but that he could go through life being repeatedly pardoned for the unforgivable, moving like a pageant—a one-man procession of the passions. Mr, Dobree, in a short, compact, and astonishingly full biography, has presented a portrait of Casanova almost] as vivid as that given us by Casanova himself in his famous memoirs. We know that in this man's life there was much that was shameless, apart from much that was shameful. Yet he remains for all time a type and an example—a man who was almost all the things that a man should not be, and was all thoso things brilliantly. There is nearly always something staggering about him. He was the eldest son of a Venetian actor, and was born on April 2, 1725. In his infancy he was, it appears, sickly and half imbecile, a condition that was relieved by a fairy who, says Mr. Dobree, came dowji the chimney, according to tradition. And early in life he %vas assured of the power of his mind by developing for himself tho notion that the earth, and not the sun, moves in an orbit. Above all motives, the power that moved Casanova was the power of sex, or what he would have called love, in common with a large number of his well-bred contemporaries. Ho cultivated women until he came to believe that not to make a conquest was to fail not only himself but the object of desire. And yet, says Mr. Dobree, he was "half a philosopher, no empty-headed, rascally parasite and libertine." After the corrupt fashion of the time, he was made an abbe —"a happy, idle, dandified abbe of fifteen, his hair lightly powdered and scented with jasmine." And he was. taken uuder the protection of old Senator Malipiero, "because he habitually ate as much as two people, aiid thus stimulated the appetite of the aged patrician." He was sent to a seminary, and was glad, thinking of great prospects of preferment. But he was expelled for a grave irregularity of conduct, of which lie swore that he was innocent—and j almost certainly was.

The first affair in which he felt that his heart was really engaged occurred on a journey to Home, to which he travelled in company with an advocate, his wife, and his sister. With the wife, Lucrezia, he fell in love, and she with him, and the not honourable business progressed well, from the lovers' point of view. Then there came the escapade of his helping an absconding couple, and being in consequence expelled from Rome, and sent on an ill-defined mission to Constantinople in order to "save face." During the journey he fell in love with a beautiful opera singer named Thereso, who offered to support him, i she herself having the offer of a secure career from a duke. But this j the eighteen-year-old Casanova could not stomach, and the affair fell through. The next important episode took place in Venice, where "he became a complete rapscallion," making a shabby living by playing the violin in a theatre orchestra, getting drunk every night, and generally causing honest citizens as much fear and inconvenience as possible. One night, as he was walking downstairs behind an aged senator, he saw the old man drop a letter, and, picking it up, restored it. The old man, one Bragadino, offered in return to take Casanova back to his lodgings in his gondola, and on the way fell into a fit. Casanova rushed f-or a surgeon, went back to the senator's palace, and acted the devoted nurse. He swore that if he left Bragadino's side the man would die, and proved his words by removing a fearsome poultice which the surgeon had placed on the patient's chest, and I which seemed to be choking him. Bragadino and two of his friends then developed a faith in the young man that was utterly fatuous, and Casanova for his part played on their credulity so ■ well that he was treated like a son, given a handsome allowance, and relied on for everything. He pretended to have a special knowledge of the occult, invented a private oracle whom he named Paralis, and became so much master of the situation that Bragadino and his friends would do nothing without his advice. There you have a good sample of the supreme audacity of the man who for forty years dazzled and scandalised Europe. That audacity it was that enabled him to live in luxury, to pose as a brilliant scholar (which in some ways he was), to enjoy the love of a legion-of beautiful women. It was all rather sordid, but it looked magnificent. He gambled furiously, winning fortunes at a time and once, for a challenge, | sat at play continuously for forty-two ' hours, until his opponent staggered fainting from the table. There was little that he did not do or experience, fifom the forging of letters of credit to escaping from a Venetian prison by making a hole in the floor of the cell.