I, Erzählende Schriften 30, Casanovas Heimfahrt, Seite 75

30
Casanovas Heimfahrt
box 4/10
C . n un n Maa a


92 Kr

GG
W
S B

4

E(I

F
S

B
oge
FZN

Oine

Sme!
LITERANT SCPPLEMENT.
# Wu
n
kond Year.)
Registered as n Neirspaper.] PRICE 6d.
LONDON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1923.
Signors of the Night, gave a peculiar tone,
a peculiar zest even, to the life of pleasure
in the city. It is perceptible in the canvases
CARNAVAL DE VENISE.
PAGE
of Pietro Longhi, in which an air of in¬
81
definite apprehension scems always to hover
round the groups of revellers. We discern
reigned without ruling over a State from which
* Do not tell my husband that I danced
in the background one or more closkedi
the black Peace of Passarowitz had in 1718
upon the tight-rope in the Carnival at
83
#ligures, their faces hidden by the corpse¬
ripped all but the shreds of its Jonian and
Venice!?' This fragment, which a well¬
83
like whiite mask of the Venetian mode.
Dalmatian empire; he adlorned a Church,
known English writer of Venetian descent
83
Let us be discreet! it may mean danger.
once famed for sturdy piety and independ¬
found in his grandmother’s hand among tho
84
ence, now, in its sceptical decadence, summed
It may be a hoax; let us redouble our
family papers, has the pathos of an old
84
cruslied mask or faded silken slipper. Its
dliscretion! They say that a ponierded body¬
up in acted epigram by thewag who blew lis
85
scent recalls that intoxication in the air of
hose upon the purple of a canon walking in
was fished up from the Grand Canal this
85
procession.
eighteenth-century Venice“ which made it
morning. They say that some fentaisist
85
a place where the soberest might be expected
The facade was unimpaired. The patri¬
has persuaded M. de Montesquien to fly
86
to commit some paradoxical escapade. The
ciate, huddling their togas over the motley
from the city to elude the enger of the Three.
86
of Harlequin or Coviello, and donning their
traveller of the period must have known this
Strangers shiver not unnenjoyably and mask
86
expectancy as his boat came out upon the
stately wigs in the hope of balancing their
with special care as they pass through the
87
lagoon after making wich the usual passengers
brains, still gathered gravely in the Great
gloom of denk lanes and humped bricges
87
—an officer or two, an abate or two, some
Conneil, though the jealously-guarded Libro
into the full blaze of Carnival on the Piazza
87
d’Oro was fast becoming a book to register
elegant Venetian lady, a band of strolling
of St. Mark. Noxt to the gaily dancing
admissions bought by gold. In the Senate
players, or even a knot of pilgrims on their
puppets a preeching-friar holds up his
8
there is voting on a grave affair of State.
way from the Three Kings of Cologne to St.
crucifix; Turkish tumblers make a pyramid,
The great gaming house, the Ridotto, must
James of Compostella—its crawling voyage
the wandering story-teller bawls out the
be closed, and several noble croupiers will
past the summer-palaces of the Venetian
feats of the Paladins; in the unwonted
lose a prized position. In the Collegio the
nobility that lined the reed-fringed banks
splendlour of wag candles, before the gorgeous
Sages debate administration. The Army,
of the Brenta. To have put out to sea to
booth of the celebrated Dr. Vitali, healer
seek a city, to be passing as in dream through
with an Austrian martinet in command,
of all ills, Brighella and Pautaloon perform
90
makes a better show of uniforms than of
streets of water that washed against marble,
their lazzt. Women, closked and veiled in
weapons. Suits of armour, old swords,
to know that this was by common consent
black lace, flit by with mannish three¬
obsolete firelocks, enemmber the arsenals;
the new Sybaris of Europe“ whiere night
cornered hats cocked high on their powderedl
was as day and the domino ruled for six
but at least the Republic has the secret of
curls; an Abete of suspiclously trim and
months out of the twelve, was to feel already
an imperishable biscuit, a specimen 0
girlish figure steals through the shadows
whlich, dating from 1669, was dug up intact
that revolution of values, that thrill of dis¬
of the ercade—it is all a bewilderment of
in 1821. Nothing could be more resplendent
guise which makes the quintessence of
stuprises and deceptions.
Carnival.
thanthe Admirals, in their full-bottomed
Is it possible, moreover, to say where the
wigs, long trains, laced coats and velvet
The whole antique façade of the Venctian
farces of Carnival begin or end? In the
breeches; but at the great arsenal, a French
State as it had stood in the days of the
penurious magnificence of great petrician
traveller notes, thie shipwrights amuse thein¬
Republic’s vigour and glory was still dis¬
houses a slice of water-melon is offered on
95
selves nearly all dag without working.
played to the eyes of the curions visitor.
silver in a salon of stucco Cupids, andethe
92
Even the quizzical glance of Goethe, as late
But men, whetherthey work or play, inust be
guests go home, as de Brosses ungracionsly
92
as 1786, lost a little of its sharpness when he
grumbles, la téte libre et le rentre ereme. While
governed; and, as in past centuries, the real
92
saw the Doge and his train disembark from
the courtesan (as the same experimenter
power over Venice was wielded still by those
92
their barges of State for thie High Mass at
famnidable appendlices tothe Censtitution,
inplessentlg disenvered) freczes presump¬
92
St. Justina.
the Ten and the Three. The Council of Ten,
tion with the dignity of a princess, the
92
First the full violet dresses of the Savii jthe
originally appointed after the great Tiepoline
pettricien ledy may be ouly too complalsant.
92
Sages entrusted with the ministerial port¬
conspiracy of the fourteenth centurg to
For an elegant reception or an intimate
folios), next the ample red robes ofthe Senators
92
watch over the safety of the State, now
little ball one secks a convent-perlour,
are unfolded upon the pavement, and lastly
92
wrestled in secret with an infinitg of affairs;
where the nuns with their petite co#ffure
when the old Doge, adorned with his golden
92
with the problern of preserving a perfect
chamante prove the wittiest of hostesses.
Phrygian cap, in his long golden fuler and bis
ks and
ermine cloak, steps out of the vessel—when all
Since the churches adlorn their façades with
neutrality, with the riedle of reviving by¬
this, Isay, takes place in a little square before
94, 95, 9
alternate doses of protection and freedom
baroque ballets of cherubs and martyrs
the portal of a church, onc feels as if one were
and emnbellisk their Vespers with operatie
a moribund trade that nothing could save
96
looking at an old worked tapesirg, exccedingly
after thie fatal discovery of the Cape route;
melodies, it is but fair that the theatres
96
well designed and coloured.
should take the names of Seints—and a
and then (by way of relief), with the pro¬
In these shoes and robes had stepped the
compliment also to the elergy whe write
NCEMENTS.
priety of allowing ouly black gondlolas as a
men under whose rule the Republie had
PAGE
check on extravagance; with the diameter
the cornedies. Even here, thougli prepared
planted the Lion on the cities of Dalmatia,
omn
of skirts; or with the drafting of a decrce
for fantesy, thie newcomer was apt to be a
oard
dug its claws into thie ferra #irma of the Piave
and Co.
trifle disconcerted. Goethe records that
of expulsion against a certain actress who
Frant
and Adige provinces, filled the Adriatie and
nd Sons
83
was responsible for the foreign ambassadors
1 he“came hoie laughing from e tregedy,?
I., and Sons
8 4
the Mediterranean with its commerce, sent
urie
90
wasting too much of their time. Even
andie mllst have been mildig surprising to
dSons
91
the long lines of its caravans far into Asin,