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.”