Produced by David Widger
MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798
VENETIAN YEARS, Volume 1b—A CLERIC IN NAPLES
THE RARE UNABRIDGED LONDON EDITION OF 1894 TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR MACHEN TOWHICH HAS BEEN ADDED THE CHAPTERS DISCOVERED BY ARTHUR SYMONS.
A CLERIC IN NAPLES
CHAPTER VIII
My Misfortunes in Chiozza—Father Stephano—The Lazzaretto at Ancona—The
Greek Slave—My Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Loretto—I Go to Rome on Foot,
and From Rome to Naples to Meet the Bishop—I Cannot Join Him—Good Luck
Offers Me the Means of Reaching Martorano, Which Place I Very Quickly
Leave to Return to Naples
The retinue of the ambassador, which was styled "grand," appeared to mevery small. It was composed of a Milanese steward, named Carcinelli, of apriest who fulfilled the duties of secretary because he could not write,of an old woman acting as housekeeper, of a man cook with his ugly wife,and eight or ten servants.
We reached Chiozza about noon. Immediately after landing, I politelyasked the steward where I should put up, and his answer was:
"Wherever you please, provided you let this man know where it is, so thathe can give you notice when the peotta is ready to sail. My duty," headded, "is to leave you at the lazzaretto of Ancona free of expense fromthe moment we leave this place. Until then enjoy yourself as well as youcan."
The man to whom I was to give my address was the captain of the peotta. Iasked him to recommend me a lodging.
"You can come to my house," he said, "if you have no objection to share alarge bed with the cook, whose wife remains on board."
Unable to devise any better plan, I accepted the offer, and a sailor,carrying my trunk, accompanied me to the dwelling of the honest captain.My trunk had to be placed under the bed which filled up the room. I wasamused at this, for I was not in a position to be over-fastidious, and,after partaking of some dinner at the inn, I went about the town. Chiozzais a peninsula, a sea-port belonging to Venice, with a population of tenthousand inhabitants, seamen, fishermen, merchants, lawyers, andgovernment clerks.
I entered a coffee-room, and I had scarcely taken a seat when a youngdoctor-at-law, with whom I had studied in Padua, came up to me, andintroduced me to a druggist whose shop was near by, saying that his housewas the rendezvous of all the literary men of the place. A few minutesafterwards, a tall Jacobin friar, blind of one eye, called Corsini, whomI had known in Venice, came in and paid me many compliments. He told methat I had arrived just in time to go to a picnic got up by the Macaronicacademicians for the next day, after a sitting of the academy in whichevery member was to recite something of his composition. He invited me tojoin them, and to gratify the meeting with the delivery of one of myproductions. I accepted the invitation, and, after the reading of tenstanzas which I had written for the occasion, I was unanimously elected amember. My success at the picnic was still greater, for I disposed ofsuch a quantity of macaroni that I was found worthy of the title ofprince of the academy.
The young doctor, himself one of the academicians, introduced me to hisfamily. His parents, who were in easy circumstances, received me verykindly. One of his sisters was very amiable, but the other, a professednun, appeared to me a prodigy of beauty. I might have enjoyed myself in avery agreeable way in the midst of that charming family during my stay inChiozza, but I suppose that