re, Count
Waldstein stopped me at Teplitz and led me to Dux where I still am and
where, according to all appearances, I shall die.
"This is the only summary of my life that I have written, and I permit
any use of it which may be desired.
"'Non erubesco evangelium'.
"This 17th November 1797.
"Jacques Casanova."
In reference to Casanova's ironic remark about his escape from England,
see his conversation, on the subject of "dishonor," with Sir Augustus
Hervey at London in 1763, which is given in the Memoirs.
VII
LAST DAYS AT DUX
Scattered through the Memoirs are many of Casanova's thoughts about his
old age. Some were possibly incorporated in the original text, others
possibly added when he revised the text in 1797. These vary from
resignation to bitterness, doubtless depending on Casanova's state of
mind at the moment he wrote them:
"Now that I am seventy-two years old, I believe myself no longer
susceptible of such follies. But alas! that is the very thing which
causes me to be miserable."
"I hate old age which offers only what I already know, unless I should
take up a gazette."
"Age has calmed my passions by rendering them powerless, but my heart has
not grown old and my memory has kept all the freshness of youth."
"No, I have not forgotten her [Henriette]; for even now, when my head is
covered with white hair, the recollection of her is still a source of
happiness for my heart."
"A scene which, even now, excites my mirth."
"Age, that cruel and unavoidable disease, compels me to be in good
health, in spite of myself."
"Now that I am but the shadow of the once brilliant Casanova, I love to
chatter."
"Now that age has whitened my hair and deadened the ardor of my senses,
my imagination does not take such a high flight and I think differently."
"What embitters my old age is that, having a heart as warm as ever, I
have no longer the strength necessary to secure a single day as blissful
as those which I owed to this charming girl."
"When I recall these events, I grow young again and feel once more the
delights of youth, despite the long years which separate me from that
happy time."
"Now that I am getting into my dotage, I look on the dark side of
everything. I am invited to a wedding and see naught but gloom; and,
witnessing the coronation of Leopold II, at Prague, I say to myself,
'Nolo coronari'. Cursed old age, thou art only worthy of dwellin
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