face and her bosom. She was delighted, and studied the eruption to an end with all the curiosity of a physician.
The night seemed short, though we had not lost a moment's space, and at daybreak we had to part. I left them in bed, being fortunate to get away observed of none.
In the evening, after supper, Casanova contrives another meeting with his charmers.
……Going out with my heroines, I worked wonders. Hedvige philosophised over the pleasure, and told me that she would ne'er have tasted it had I not chanced to encounter her uncle. Helène did not speak; more voluptous than her cousin, she swelled out like a dove, and came to life only to expire a moment after. I wondered at her amazing fecundity, although such is not uncommon; while I was engaged in one operation, she passed fourteen times from life to death. True, 'twas the sixth course I had run, so I made my pace somewhat slower to enjoy the pleasure she took in the business.……
After passing another night with the cousins, Casanova again sets out on his travels; and here, for the time being, we will leave him.
- Pietro Aretino, author of The Ragionamenti, is generally supposed to have enumerated a variety of postures in which the venereal act might be performed. To the many he is known solely as "the man of the postures." This particular claim to distinction is, to say the least, a matter much in dispute, but we will reserve discussion of the question for Vol. 2 of Anthologica Rarissima, where lavish excerpts from Aretino's works will be given.
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