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Old Age and Death The Memoirs Of Jacques Casanova De Seingalt ...

Old Age and Death The Memoirs Of Jacques Casanova De Seingalt ...

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58<br />

She died in 1842.<br />

Between the 13th February <strong>and</strong> the 6th <strong>De</strong>cember 1796, <strong>Casanova</strong> engaged in<br />

a correspondence with Mlle. Henriette de Schuckmann who was visiting at<br />

Bayreuth. This Henriette (unfortunately not the Henriette of the <strong>Memoirs</strong><br />

whose "forty letters" to <strong>Casanova</strong> apparently have not been located), had<br />

visited the library at Dux in the summer of 1786. "I was with the<br />

Chamberlain Freiberg, <strong>and</strong> I was greatly moved, as much by your<br />

conversation as by your kindness which provided me with a beautiful<br />

edition of Metastasio, elegantly bound in red morocco." Finding herself<br />

at Bayreuth in an enforced idleness <strong>and</strong> wishing a stimulant, wishing also<br />

to borrow some books, she wrote <strong>Casanova</strong>, under the auspices of Count<br />

Koenig, a mutual friend, the 13th February 1796, recalling herself to his<br />

memory. <strong>Casanova</strong> responded to her overtures <strong>and</strong> five of her letters were<br />

preserved at Dux. On the 28th May Henriette wrote:<br />

"But certainly, my good friend, your letters have given me the greatest<br />

pleasure, <strong>and</strong> it is with a rising satisfaction that I pore over all you<br />

say to me. I love, I esteem, I cherish, your frankness . . . . I<br />

underst<strong>and</strong> you perfectly <strong>and</strong> I love to distraction the lively <strong>and</strong><br />

energetic manner with which you express yourself."<br />

On the 30th September, she wrote: "You will read to-day, if you please, a<br />

weary letter; for your silence, Monsieur, has given me humors. A promise<br />

is a debt, <strong>and</strong> in your last letter you promised to write me at least a<br />

dozen pages. I have every right to call you a bad debtor; I could summon<br />

you before a court of justice; but all these acts of vengeance would not<br />

repair the loss which I have endured through my hope <strong>and</strong> my fruitless<br />

waiting . . . . It is your punishment to read this trivial page; but<br />

although my head is empty, my heart is not so, <strong>and</strong> it holds for you a<br />

very living friendship."

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