Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/507

 9*s. viii. D EO. 21, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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von der Trenck, Cagliostro, Jannowitch, Prince Giustiniani, Casanova lived. Although an avowed adventurer, he was at least a man of extraordinary abilities, who possessed the friendship of those whom the world delighted to honour.

His European celebrity arose mainly from two episodes which, in these prosaic days, would scarcely have attracted permanent notice. I refer to his duel with Branicki and his romantic escape from the Piombi. As regards his so-called " dark arts," they were all moonshine, and were merely intended to gratify the exasperating credulity of willing dupes like Madame d'Urfe and the Duchesse de Chartres.

It would be interesting to know exactly how many of Casanova's manuscripts are still extant. A complete list is undoubtedly required. Meanwhile, 1 propose to conclude my notes with such information as I have been enabled to procure. In the possession of the Herren Brockhaus may be found

1. ' Reverie sur la Mesure Moyenne de notre Annee selon la Reformation Gregorienne.' With the following motto : " In pondere et mensura." (Written at Dux, April, 1793.)

2. Essai Critique sur les Moeurs, sur les Sciences et les Arts. Motto :

Hoc si erit in te Solo, nil verbi, pereas quin fortiter, addam.

Hor., ii. Sat. 3.

This MS. comprises twenty -four leaves in folio, divided into twenty - seven chapters. The author discourses on slavery, freedom, decorum, wealth, princes, the throes of death and its majesty, morality, politics, logic, natural history, chemistry, mathematics, theo- logy, mechanics, valour, religion, atheism, astronomy, liberty of conscience, theosophy, sacred history, poetry, the epopee of archi- tecture and painting, and the Latin tongue.

3. Eighteen letters to "M. de Feldkirkner, Maitre d'hotel de Monsieur le Comte Joseph de Waldstein."

They purport to be the author's justification in the form of letters. Only eleven of these effusions have been published.

4. A manuscript written in a neat hand and with much precision, entitled 'Lucubration sur 1'Usure: moyens de la detruire, sans la soumettre & des comminatoires.'

This remarkable essay is said to have been composed with as much depth as good sense. It comprises sixteen leaves in folio, and opens with a dedication to the Emperor Joseph II. ;

5. A scheme for the establishment of the Paris lottery at the Ecole Militaire in that city.

6. Directions for a Chinese fete, which, according to the dramatic poet Lorenzo da Ponte, Casanova organized for the amusement of Joseph II. at i Vienna,

7. Translations in Italian verse of Voltaire's ' Ecossaise ' and the ' Rhadamiste' of Crebillon.

8. Satires on the Abb<$ Chiari ; also that allegori- cal romance which led to his final rupture with the Venetian nobility, ' Ne Amori ne Donne ovvero la Stalla d' Augia ripulita.'

Casanova in his memoirs tells us that the following MSS. would be found at Dux after* his death :

1. Notes on the ' Iliad ' and the ' Odyssey.'

2. Three parts (out of five) of his 'Histoire des Troubles de Pologne.'

3. The last will and testament of Count Carolo Coronini, in octosyllabic verse.

This curious legacy was bequeathed to Casanova by the count himself. In the last chapter of the memoirs we find these words : " J'ai conserv^ religieusement ce legs du Comte. J'aurais autant aim6 sa fortune."

4. A panegyric, written circa 1740.

In 1868 Prince Edmpnd Clary -Aid ringhen,

fraudson of Casanova's friend Prince Charles oseph de Ligne, made a hasty inspection of the papers left at Dux, and found among an indescribable confusion of letters, memoranda, notes, &c., the following fragments. Prince Clary shall speak for himself :

"The first manuscript that fell into my hands was dedicated to my grandmother Clary, nee Ligne, and consisted of ' Reflections on the French Revolu- tion.' I remained for two hours in that library, and made a superficial examination of the contents of a large drawer. The letters are certainly very in- teresting, but I had not time to read them. I con- fined my researches to a discovery, if possible, of any continuation of the memoirs, of which, how- ever, I found no trace. I came across leaves de- tached from stitched paper books, but in such inde- scribable confusion that I had no time to arrange them. I found a mass of blurred MSS. some rough copies, and some ' extracts ' copied out fair. There were several sheets relating to the * Icosameron,' a work that has been published ; also a dialogue

entitled 'A Dream God and I'; an 'Essay on

Material and Immaterial Matter '; a kind of journal entitled 'History of my Existence.' There were also numerous historical essays, several bundles relating to Poland, a catalogue, raisonne' of the Dux library, and, finally, many poems, dramas, &c., with a tragi- comedy entitled 'Le Polemo- scope,' which Casanova appears to have dedicated to my grandmother."

I have, I think, pretty well traversed the

f round upon which I set forth six years ago. have not done full justice to the subject- partly through my own insufficiency, and partly because much that would have been material to the issue is veiled in mystery. Casanova's " literary remains " are in the keeping of those who shrink from haying their names associated with that brilliant adventurer, whose last words so well express the variable tenor of his life: "J'ai vecu en philosophe je meurs en chretien."

EICHAKD EDGCUMBE.