Category:Niklas Lafrensen - Wikimedia Commons
'Le déjeuner en tête à tête'. Casanova's relationship with Henriette was to follow a fairly typical, but by no means universal, pattern: Casanova comes across a woman in trouble; he helps her out; she is grateful to him; they become lovers; they have a short affair; his passion satisfied, he loses interest and moves on. In the case of Henriette, however, it is she who finishes the relationship and moves on.
‘Lovers in a Park’ (detail) by Francois Boucher (1758). It’s not difficult to see why Casanova was so attracted to Henriette nor why his feelings for her were to become so intense. There was the excitement surrounding their first meeting. There was her beauty. There was the challenge of seducing her. She was on the run, like Casanova himself. She was clearly a free-thinker as far as sex was concerned. She was a risk-taker, like Casanova, willing to transgress social and sexual taboos.
Le opere / Carlo Goldoni / La locandiera / Sperimentazioni e piattaforma / Share EDUcational COntent
'The Innkeeper' by Goldoni. The inn-keeper, along with several sbirri (police), were making their way into a room occupied by a Hungarian military officer and his companion who also purported to be a military officer. Local regulations forbade any man to sleep with a woman who was not his wife, and the inn-keeper was pretty sure that the companion was neither a man nor his wife. Casanova quickly discovered that the aim of inn-keeper and police was to extort money.
THE CASANOVA TOUR by Pablo Guenther - Casanova's Carriages 2 - casanova magazine
Top left, possibly Henriette. "At these words I saw coming out of the bed-clothes a lovely head, with dishevelled hair, and a blooming, laughing face which, although it was crowned with a man’s cap, left no doubt that the captain’s friend belonged to that sex without which man would be the most miserable animal on earth." (Casanova’s memoirs)
THE CASANOVA TOUR by Pablo Guenther - Casanova's Carriages 2 - casanova magazine
The "Diligence à l'anglaise". Ditching his plans to go to Naples, Casanova spoke to the Hungarian officer and offered to take them to Parma in his very own carriage, which he assured them would be far more comfortable than a public coach. The captain agreed. Casanova, however, didn’t own a carriage; a detail which, by the end of the day, he’d resolved by going into Cesena and buying a particularly luxurious one.
The Memoires of Casanova
In a skilfully constructed narrative, Casanova records the three months they spent together in Parma. The story he depicts is of two soulmates whose sublime love was doomed by destiny and the harsh realities of life (although it’s questionable whether Henriette saw the relationship in quite the same way that Casanova did).
Tourist Attractions in Parma
Arriving in Parma, they set up at D’Andremorit’s hotel where Casanova passed Henriette off as his wife. He then busied himself hiring various servants, a tutor to teach Henriette Italian, a shoemaker, a milliner, and a dressmaker to put together a wardrobe (Henriette had nothing apart from her military uniform). Once they are established in their apartments, repeatedly Casanova extols the immensity of his happiness and his love for Henriette.
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Louise-Élisabeth of France - Wikipedia
Portrait of 'Madame de France'. Now the outside world impinges on their love: "Madame de France, wife of the Infante Don Philip, having arrived in Parma, the opera house was opened, and I engaged a private box, telling Henriette that I intended to take her to the theatre every night" (Casanova's memoirs). Thus they begin to socialise and, ultimately, Henriette is recognised.