price to pay for Zanettaâs behaviour. Her mother went hysterical when she found out what had happened. Her father was so distraught that he literally died of grief within the month. By following her heart Zanetta had unwittingly killed her father and made a widow of her mother. The Casanovasâ marriage was mired in guilt. When their first child was born on 2 April 1725, the couple named him Giacomo after his estranged paternal grandfather, and Girolamo after his late maternal one.
Had Zanetta known that her firstborn Giacomo Girolamo would posthumously become one of the most famous men ever to have lived, she might well have taken more interest in him, but she appears to have had little maternal instinct as far as he wasconcerned. When her husband was invited to join a troupe of actors travelling to England at the beginning of 1726, she accompanied him, leaving her ten-month-old infant in her widowed motherâs care for an indefinite period.
Invited to London by the Dukes of Montague and Richmond, the
Comédie du Théâtre de Gherardi
, as the Italian troupe were called after seventeenth-century harlequin Evaristo Gherardi, arrived in the sprawling metropolis of London in mid-March, and opened at the New Theatre in the Haymarket on the twenty-fourth with
La Fille à la Mode ou le Parisien Dupe
, an Italian comedy in spite of its French name. Despite a rather mixed reception, the following autumn they moved across the street to the grander and more famous Kingâs Theatre, a building owned and designed by playwright and architect John Vanbrugh and managed by the charismatic if notoriously ugly Swiss impresario Johann Heidegger. Heidegger staged opera at the Kingâs in conjunction with court composer George Frideric Handel. He also threw lavish masquerade parties there for the aristocracy, thus earning himself the reputation among churchmen as Englandâs âprincipal promoter of vice and immoralityâ and ensuring that his premises became the epicentre of fashionable London society. Eager to exploit any new scheme to make his theatre pay, Heidegger booked the Gherardi players to perform at the Kingâs on nights when no other entertainment was being held there.
After his father-in-lawâs death, Gaetano had promised Marcia Farussi that he would never force her daughter to appear on stage, but Zanetta needed little encouragement. Although she had had no musical training, she a fine actress with good taste, a true ear and perfect execution. When the Gherardi troupe opened at the Kingâs Theatre on 28 September with a performance of
The Faithful Wife, or Arlequin Stripâd
, the young âMrs Casanovaâ was among the cast. The first nightâs performance was a grand society event attended by King George I and the Prince of Wales, and despite the presence of his formidable wife, Caroline of Ansbach, forty-two-year-oldPrince George Augustus took an immediate fancy to the ravishing fledgling actress.
âRepetitiveâ and âfoolishâ was how Nathaniel Mist, the publisher of
Mistâs Weekly Journal
, described the Commedia dellâ Arte season at the Kingâs Theatre that autumn. The Prince of Wales, however, was sufficiently impressed to attend at least five more performances, though it appears he was more interested in one of the players than in the plays. For by early October, Zanetta Casanova, the twenty-year-old romantic heronie of
The Faithful Wife
, was with child. And ironically, far from her being faithful to her real-life husband, rumour had it that the Hanoverian prince was responsible for her condition.
By 26 April 1727, when she took one of the leading roles in a harlequinade called
La Parodia del Pastor Fido
, Zanetta was seven months pregnant. Six weeks later, on 1 June, she gave birth to her second child, a baby boy who was baptised Francesco. Ten days after that, King George I died in Osnabruck, Germany, and George Augustus,
Had Zanetta known that her firstborn Giacomo Girolamo would posthumously become one of the most famous men ever to have lived, she might well have taken more interest in him, but she appears to have had little maternal instinct as far as he wasconcerned. When her husband was invited to join a troupe of actors travelling to England at the beginning of 1726, she accompanied him, leaving her ten-month-old infant in her widowed motherâs care for an indefinite period.
Invited to London by the Dukes of Montague and Richmond, the
Comédie du Théâtre de Gherardi
, as the Italian troupe were called after seventeenth-century harlequin Evaristo Gherardi, arrived in the sprawling metropolis of London in mid-March, and opened at the New Theatre in the Haymarket on the twenty-fourth with
La Fille à la Mode ou le Parisien Dupe
, an Italian comedy in spite of its French name. Despite a rather mixed reception, the following autumn they moved across the street to the grander and more famous Kingâs Theatre, a building owned and designed by playwright and architect John Vanbrugh and managed by the charismatic if notoriously ugly Swiss impresario Johann Heidegger. Heidegger staged opera at the Kingâs in conjunction with court composer George Frideric Handel. He also threw lavish masquerade parties there for the aristocracy, thus earning himself the reputation among churchmen as Englandâs âprincipal promoter of vice and immoralityâ and ensuring that his premises became the epicentre of fashionable London society. Eager to exploit any new scheme to make his theatre pay, Heidegger booked the Gherardi players to perform at the Kingâs on nights when no other entertainment was being held there.
After his father-in-lawâs death, Gaetano had promised Marcia Farussi that he would never force her daughter to appear on stage, but Zanetta needed little encouragement. Although she had had no musical training, she a fine actress with good taste, a true ear and perfect execution. When the Gherardi troupe opened at the Kingâs Theatre on 28 September with a performance of
The Faithful Wife, or Arlequin Stripâd
, the young âMrs Casanovaâ was among the cast. The first nightâs performance was a grand society event attended by King George I and the Prince of Wales, and despite the presence of his formidable wife, Caroline of Ansbach, forty-two-year-oldPrince George Augustus took an immediate fancy to the ravishing fledgling actress.
âRepetitiveâ and âfoolishâ was how Nathaniel Mist, the publisher of
Mistâs Weekly Journal
, described the Commedia dellâ Arte season at the Kingâs Theatre that autumn. The Prince of Wales, however, was sufficiently impressed to attend at least five more performances, though it appears he was more interested in one of the players than in the plays. For by early October, Zanetta Casanova, the twenty-year-old romantic heronie of
The Faithful Wife
, was with child. And ironically, far from her being faithful to her real-life husband, rumour had it that the Hanoverian prince was responsible for her condition.
By 26 April 1727, when she took one of the leading roles in a harlequinade called
La Parodia del Pastor Fido
, Zanetta was seven months pregnant. Six weeks later, on 1 June, she gave birth to her second child, a baby boy who was baptised Francesco. Ten days after that, King George I died in Osnabruck, Germany, and George Augustus,
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