Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/441

 us. V.MAY n, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

361

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAT 11, 1912.

CONTENTS. No. 124.

If OTES : Casanova and Madame Campioni, 361 Charles Dickens, 362 A Runic Calendar, 363 Saying about Physicians Samuel Derrick : Thomas Wilkes " Totane " "Cheek" Elizabeth, Dowager Countess of Clancarty, 366 "Gender" Pontifical Zouaves and the Banner of the Sacred Heart Modern Pronunciation : " Idea," 367.

QUERIES : Robin Hood Society Teresa Mercandotti, 367 Sanctuary Seats Cooper's 'Athense Cantabrigien- ses' Maximilian I. of Bavaria: Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg Imprisonment in Jersey, Scilly Isles, &c. The Suffix "shire" Wharton Family " Diggy iloggrys" -- 'The Shepherd's Calendar,' 368 Coaching Songs "Static bene fida carinis" Lady Mary Grey and Thomas Keyes The "Black Bear" at Southwell Mum taz Mahal Women as Churchwardens ' Bite Again and Bite Bigger' Meso-Gothic First Coffee-House Keeper, 369 " Thrums "Branding of Hounds Pillar Stones next Cromlechs Robert Ball Lord Jaggard Undertaker's " black ladder" Disaster at Rhe", 1627, 370.

REPLIES : Osmunderley, 370 Authors or Explanations Wanted, 371 Authors of Quotations Wanted Selby Peculiar Court Robert Drewrie, executed 1607 Maurepas on Madame de P_ompadour Cumberland Epitaph, 372 Fleetwood of Missenden Cheshire Words Nottingham as a Surname, 373-" Bunkins" Roman Coins Prebendary Gabriel Grant County Bibliographies Bacon's Birth Urban V.'s Family Name, 374 Selkirk Family Torrens The Duchess of Gloucester and Peel Castle Abbey of Aumone, 375 Punch and Judy "Rood-Loft" "Like" St. Bride's: J. Pridden Casa- nova and the English Resident at Venice Keighley " Confounded red herrings," 376 Translations from Polish Poets Shoes and Death French Grammars before 1750" You have forced me to do this willingly "Sir John Jefferson, 377 South Carolina Newspapers Byron and the Sidney Family " What you but see," &c. The Thames Sardinian Archway " Bells of Arms," 378.

NOTES ON BOOKS: 'London South of the Thames' ' Burlington Magazine ' ' Nineteenth Century.'

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

CASANOVA AND MADAME CAMPIONI.

ABOUT the year 1746 Casanova became acquainted at Padua with a Venetian courtesan named Ancilla (Gamier, ii. 75). Shortly afterwards this woman met the famous dancer Campioni, whom she married, a ad whose profession she adopted. Casa- nova saw her again at Lyons in 1750, after her return from London, where she had been fulfilling a successful engagement " au theatre de Hay-Market " (Gamier, ii. 288), and he bears testimony to her beauty and talent. In 1753. when Casanova came across the husband at Vienna, he learnt that he had divorced his wife (ii. 400); and in 1754 this Ancilla or Madame Cam- pioni was living in Venice under the pro- tection of John Murray, " ministre resident

d' Angle terre " (Gamier, iii. 11415). There is some reason to suppose that the wanton beauty, whose amours and audacity aston- ished even Casanova, was the same Cam- pioni whose reign as queen of the demi-monde has been mentioned by English journalists. I take the following references from The Town and Country Magazine :

"....he [Baron Haslang] kept a magnificent house in Bond Street ; a great number of ser- vants, and.... an extravagant mistress. The lady here meant was Signiora [sic] Campioni, one of the first-rate opera-dancers at that time, more celebrated for her charms than her theatrical merit. She was a tall, elegant figure, moving with the utmost grace and ease, neither fat nor thin, but in that happy medium which com- municates the just idea of beauty ; her eyes were lively, yet modest ; her other features ranged with the greatest symmetry ; in a word, her person was so happily framed, that being strongly solicited by an eminent painter, she consented to sit for Venus (not of Medicis), which picture is very like her, and is now in the posses- sion of Count H[aslan]g .... Campioni, though her salary from the opera was very considerable, despising economy, and admiring every pretty fellow that admired her, was so far from making her personal attractions advantageous to her that they were hitherto constantly pernicious to her interest. .. .she rejected many settlements that were offered to her.... she soon found herself considerably involved in debt, and to secure her liberty she accepted the baron's pro- tection" (ii. 515).

"....he [Henry, first Earl Conyngham] had a short acquaintance with the celebrated Signora Camp[io]ni. . . .this celebrated Italian toast. ..." (vi. 570).

"... .he [Edward Hussey, first Earl of Beaulieu] repaired to Italy, that sink of luxury and volup- tuousness. Here he met the remains of the once charming Campioni, so well recorded in the tablets of intrigue by Count H[aslan]g, and many of the English nobility" (viii. 180).

" We are well assured that he [Thomas Medli- cott] passed the last evening with Signora Cam- pioni before she went abroad, when she presented our hero with Count H[asla]ng's (diamond) heart as a pledge of her affection " (xi. 515).

" Woffington was about the same period in her high career of making captives ; and we have some reason to believe he [Sir Henry Gould], for a time, wore her chains, till Campioni ransomed him with his own treasure, at a very high price" (xiii. 570).

" Signiora [sic] Campioni. . . .was then reckoned one of the most beautiful Italians in England " (xvi. 345).

Since there are other references in the same magazine to the fact that Peg Woffing- ton, Fanny Murray, and Signora Campioni were contemporaries, it is quite probable that the last lady was dancing at the Opera- House in London between 1748 and 1750, which is the date indicated by Casanova's ' Memoires.' Some confirmation of this is