Giacomo Casanova

The Memoirs of Giacomo Casanova di Seingalt

Trans. Arthur Machen. 12 vols. The Casanova Society, 1922.

Chance led me to the Marylebone Theatre one evening. The spectators sat at little tables, and the charge for admittance was only a shilling, but everyone was expected to order something, were it only a pot of ale. On going into the theatre I chanced to sit down beside a girl whom I did not notice at first, but soon after I came in she turned towards me, and I beheld a ravishing profile which somehow seemed familiar...One of her gloves fell, and I hastened to restore it to her, whereupon she thanked me in a few well-chosen French sentences.
"Madam is not English, then?" said I, respectfully.
"No, sir, I am a Swiss, and a friend of yours"

The Memoirs, written in the 1780's, are best known for the author's numerous sexual adventures, of which this is one. The girl turns out to be Sara, daughter of a family he had visited in Berne: 'in three years she had grown into a perfect beauty.'

The waiter came to enquire if we had any orders, and I begged Madame M — F— [Sara's mother] to allow me to offer her some oysters. After the usual polite refusals she gave in, and I profited by her acceptance to order all the delicacies of the season, including a hare (a great delicacy in London), champagne, choice liqueurs, larks, ortolans, truffles, sweetmeats - everything, in fact, that money could buy, and I was not at all surprised when the bill proved to amount to ten guineas. But I was very much surprised when M. M— F—, who had eaten like a Turk and drunk like a Swiss, said calmly that it was too dear. I begged him politely not to trouble himself about the cost...Sara glanced at me and squeezed my hand; I had conquered

The author had come to England in 1763, hoping to sell his idea of a state lottery to English officials. He does not say when this incident occurred but it has been dated to September of that year. Marylebone Gardens was famous for its musical entertainments, and a few months earlier the lease had been taken over by Thomas Lowe, a popular singer of the period, who had opened the season with a Musical Address to the Town.