Casanova's Alibi

Giacomo di Casanova, the greatest of Italian-perhaps of all-adventurers, was born in Venice in April of 1725, the son of an actor of the San Samuele Theatre and the lovely daughter of a Venetian cobbler, who, as a result of her marriage, became herself an actress of some note. Clever, unscrupulous, and audacious, well-endowed by nature with a good exterior, a magnetic personality and a lively wit, he chose to make the world his oyster. By temperament something of a poet, something of a philosopher, something of a soldier, and entirely a gamester in every sense, he was a rogue by accident rather than design. A doctor of canon law, he knew Horace by heart, was familiar with natural science, richly stored with unusual knowledge, and as learned in the tricks of sharpers of all degrees.