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- [00:01]
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- [00:59]
Podcast Host
Have you ever wondered what went on behind the doors of glittering Georgian masquerades? In this episode of the History Extra podcast, Megan Kobza reveals all. Speaking to Charlotte Vosper, she traces the development of the phenomenon, uncovers the scandals, and launches us into the dazzling world of Georgian entertainment. And please note, this episode does contain themes of a sexual nature.
- [01:24]
Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
Your book explores the glittering world of the Georgian masquerade as it developed across the 18th century. So let's start at the beginning. When was the first masquerade in Britain? Where did the idea or the concept come from?
- [01:38]
Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
The first masquerade in Britain? That's a rough question because the archives can only give us so much information. And as far as I have come across, the first masquerade in the sense that we think of being open to more than just a group of like five people, is in Spring Garden, so it's south of the thames in about 1711 and we see that appear in a newspaper, but they don't have a big bite. People aren't really taking to them so they fade out a bit. They aren't super popular. They're not a fixture in Georgian society as of yet. However, there were things called court masks that did exist prior to this and they were really popular in the store monarchy. Charles II was a big court mask host as well as the Tudor period, and we see that with Henry viii, Elizabeth I, and those were more scripted, but they were along the lines of wearing fancy dress or costumes and exclusive Entertainments.
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Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
Then after 1711, when is the next example of a masquerade that comes along?
- [02:47]
Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
1713 and it's the north side of the river this time and it's at Somerset House. Now, Somerset House sat right between, and it still does today, between the Strand and the Thames. And today it's an elaborate, astonishing, gorgeous building. And when you walk into it from the Strand, it's sort of breathtaking when you enter the courtyard. And it looked completely different in the early 18th century. So we have to sort of retrain our brains to think about the way it might have looked then. And it's hosted by the French ambassador at the time, who is Louis, the Duke d'. Armand, and he is in London to celebrate the Treaty of Utrecht with Queen Anne and the rest of Britain. But he's there as an act of good faith, hoping to strengthen the relationship between England and France. And as part of his responsibility to serve as an emissary in England, he hosts a masquerade. And he's not sure how it's going to go, because they didn't really hit the mark in 1711. But his apartments in Somerset House are beautiful. And he's like, what a better way to show hospitality than to bring something from the French court that we've been doing in Versailles and bring that to the English elite and show them a good time on the French dime as an act of good faith.
- [04:06]
Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
So what would it have been like then, to go to the Duke's masquerade? Who would have attended?
- [04:11]
Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
The Duke's masquerades would have been attended by the top 1% of the population, really. And that's because he is using the masquerade to strengthen his position in England, in the courts, alongside the monarchy. So he would have invited the people who have influence and status, and the masquerade would have represented all of those things. So prior to this, the Georgians would have been familiar with masked parties or masked balls or even, like I'd said earlier, the court mask. They also understood the concept of being masked through the Grand Tour. And when they're in Italy, and especially in Venice, that's where we see this engagement with masked entertainment. And so, coming from France, where masquerades are being held in the court of Versailles, I think there's an attraction to it, the intrigue about it, like, oh, what is this? And so now you go, not just because it's a place to show off your status and wealth, but it's also intriguing. So it brings those two things together.
- [05:11]
Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
Yeah, it's interesting that the masquerade is actually a cultural adoption in Britain, this sort of intriguing, growing phenomenon that has been brought to Britain by the likes of the French ambassador. How did the masquerade develop beyond the Duke's initial masquerades in around 1713.
- [05:29]
Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
So after Louis leaves, the masquerade sort of crawls back into a little hole for a while until we get. Oh, he's one of my favorites. His name is Johan Jakob Heidegger. He's known as the ugliest man in London, which just, you know, ugliest man in London is hosting an entertainment where you cover your face, like, could we find a better sort of match for him? Poor thing, he comes in from Switzerland and he loves Italian opera. So he starts working at the King's Theater in the Haymarket, which is the Royal Opera House, where he's really, really gunning to get Italian opera into English culture. And there are two parties. The King, who loves Italian opera, and other people who don't love Italian opera. They want to champion British talent. They don't want to champion foreign talent. So Heidegger is facing an uphill battle and he's not financially doing so great. And he's like, you know, what, what if we had a masquerade? And what if I target all the subscribers of the opera and make them pay to come? So that's exactly what he does. He starts making these ticketed entertainments in the style of what Louis was doing at Somerset House. Now, in the rest of Europe, these entertainments are strictly limited to the court. So it is invitation only. You cannot buy your way to get in. Heidegger is the first one who puts a price on getting into the masquerade. And at first the price is like a guinea, which I think is around 200 pound, 250 today. So, like, depending on where you sit in the social spectrum, that's not cheap if you're going to six of those a year. And then you also have to pay not just for your ticket, but for what you're going to wear. And we obviously need to dress to impress, and then you have to pay for your transportation to get there. So we're looking at a couple guineas minimum, like a thousand pounds upwards to like ten million pounds, depending on how much you're going to be spending on what you're wearing. So anyway, he brings them in with the stamp of approval of George I, and then also the recognition that this is a space that sort of exists outside the court as a space for socialization, but also the temptation to transgress the strict social expectations of the Georgian period brings people in and starts the money flowing.
- [07:53]
Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
You mentioned there about the masquerade becoming this space of social transgression what kind of masquerades was Heidegger hosting? What sort of phenomenon did he create?
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Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
So this is where it gets really interesting because there are so many different perceptions of this entertainment, and they exist in our imaginations even today as this sort of scandalous, lights off, do dirty things in the corners. And there was a real attraction for that, but there was also a real fear about that as well. And so I think it's this tension between the two that has made the masquerade something that really sticks. The masquerades are held in the Royal Opera House. They're in this very fashionable, very elite venue. You have to pay heaps of money to get in. You're not going to go in where, despite wearing a mask or not, people are going to know who you are and then do something that's going to destroy your reputation or tarnish your reputation in a way that then you're going to become ostracized in society. And we see this with William Byrd ii, who is all sorts of a problematic person for many, many reasons. He owned plantations in Virginia. He was an enslaver, he abused women. Very problematic history. But he has some really interesting diaries, and they are written, of course, in shorthand of his invention. And thankfully, someone cracked that, so we are able to read them. But one of the things that's really surprising is William Byrd. This is not the surprising part. William Bird was a sex addict and he is in London, and he goes to the masquerades. Now, if you're a sexaholic and you hear about these events that are supposed to be like scandalous and dark, dirty deeds in the corners, you would think, you would think that William Bird would be there for that reason. However, that is not why he goes. William Bird goes to the masquerade to court a lady. And it's not just like someone off the street. It's Mary Smith and her father is of. Of status. And William Bird is of stat. He has a huge plantation in Virginia. However, he needs to make sure that he's sticking to the behavioral expectations of Georgian London so that he doesn't totally blow his shot. Right? We need to make sure that he is acting the way a gentleman is supposed to act, especially because he's from Virginia. He does do some stuff at the Masquerade. And I guess if we look at it, and it's hard because we have 21st century brains, so even when we try to adopt the 18th century perspective, we'll never fully understand, but he does basically, like, dry hump someone at the masquerade. And like, in the 18th century, that's probably not the best thing to be doing. And I'm pretty sure he also gets a hand job, which, again, like masquerade, dark corner. But people are also doing that outside of the masquerade. It's not just happening in the masquerade, which is why I'm hesitant to say that in that sense, it was so transgressive for, like, sexual misconduct. The other thing that I don't think people realize is the term making love today means having sex. And in the 18th century, if someone writes that they were making love in their letters or in their diaries, that is zero percent what that means. They are talking about really, really heavy flirting, maybe some dirty talking as opposed to, like, physical intercourse going on.
- [11:17]
Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
Yeah, that's interesting to think that making love meant just flirting in the 18th century. I think that example of William Byrd taps into that complexity around what counts as transgression, how much opportunity there is to transgress social norms in a masquerade space. And as you've said, we have a tendency to think of the masquerade as this hot seat of debauchery and immoral behavior. But William Byrd's example definitely counters that. Did Georgians think of the masquerade in those terms more widely, then? Were there any criticisms of the masquerade once it had burst onto London's social scene?
- [11:54]
Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
Yeah, it's a tricky question. I mean, with most of the masquerade, because it's so nuanced, it's hard to know what the average Georgian thought of the masquerade, because most of the existing firsthand accounts of it that we have are from people of status. So that sort of skews our knowledge of what happened in the masquerades beyond what we can read in newspapers. But we do see that there are representations of it for the average Georgian, coming through, newspaper, coming through, printed ephemera. So things like satirical prints that are going up in print shop windows, we see it coming through on handkerchiefs, we see it coming through in porcelain later on. And of course, in literature and in theater, there is very much a mix. The people who are going to the masquerades, at least the women and their correspondents that I've read, tend to view the masquerade as a place where they can go and they can show off what they're wearing. And their dialogue diaries are filled with lists of what people are there, whose diamonds they're wearing, what their dresses are made of, and how well executed the costumes are. So very much sort of like a red carpet report. Whereas we do have criticisms who are coming from Hogarth is actually one of the leading ones. In 1724, he prints a scathing satirical engraving of Heidegger and the Masquerades. And it's called Bad Taste of the Town. And part of it is fear of the infiltration of Italian culture into British culture. But part of that is also fear of what the masquerade is symbolizing to the people below the upper ranks. So that's the middling sorts and the lower sorts, because the masquerade is saying, oh, come in and you can dress as whatever you want to. What does that say to the middling sort? Does that now say, oh, you could do that too? Even if you can't come in. There's this, this question about, are things becoming topsy turvy? Are things being flipped on their heads? And the bishops, because there are three of them of London who are terrified and they rail against the masquerade for years during Heidegger's time at King's Theater. And we see it move through each of the three of them. There's Gibson, Sherlock and Robinson. And one of them even petitions the king at one point is, could you please just stop the masquerade? That's gonna r ruin the city. It's, you know, vice is running rampant and the first place we need to stop it is up at the top. And the king is like, as long as there are masquerades, I will go to them. Leave my entertainments alone, I will keep going. So there is an attempt to quash them, but it's not very successful. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't criticisms that are circulating.
- [14:44]
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Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
So if these criticisms didn't prevent the musquerade from existing, how did it go on to develop and become more popular under Heidegger and beyond?
- [16:18]
Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
So I should say there is a moment in time when one of the bishops is marginally successful in quashing the masquerade, and that's for about a year. So then Heidegger decides to rename the masquerade the Ridotto, which is a popular entertainment that actually is in Venice, and it's gambling and wearing masks. However, there is no gambling at this one. It's more about dancing and music. So it's not exactly a masquerade, but it's still an Italian entertainment that's bringing in money for him. And he uses all the same language and we see that he's selling tickets at the same venue. So it goes away for about a year and then it comes back. But it comes back not blatantly being called a masquerade, it's called a ball. So they're all. They're talking together about the masquerade without calling it the masquerade, to not set off the bishops again. And there is this agreement that Heidegger is only going to host six a year instead of every single week. But really, the Georgians were so about consumer culture and conspicuous consumption, so showing off their wealth and their status and their taste through what they're wearing. And the masquerade absolutely lets you do that. And I think that's a big part of it, the continued interest of the elite in the masquerade, because the court culture of the Hanoverians in Britain was not amazing. I mean, God, look at France. You have Versailles, right? People are over the top in what they're wearing and what they're doing, and also in the power that is moving around that space. And I think the masquerade, at least in the first half of the century, is sort of filling that gap for the monarchs to let all of these people who have wealth and status come and play and display in a way that they might not necessarily in court
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Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
itself, are there Any particular examples of elites doing that, which really struck you when you're doing your research for the book?
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Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
Yeah. So Elizabeth Chudleigh would definitely not wear what she wore to court. Elizabeth Chudleigh is such an interesting woman and was part of Princess Augusta's court. And she's the Princess of Wales, so she's married to Frederick, who is the next in line to be king under George ii. Elizabeth Chudleigh is beautiful. She's charismatic. She's sparkling and witty, a little bit, you know, voluptuous. And as a maid of honor on Augustus Court, she needs to make sure that she does two things. She stays virtuous and she doesn't get married. She doesn't do either of those things. She has a clandestine marriage and she decides to go to a masquerade stripped down to almost nothing, leaving very little to the imagination. Now, she doesn't just do this to be provocative in the center of attention, because she has no idea what the outcome is going to be when she gets this plot for her outrageous masquerade costume. Tiny bit of backstory. The clandestine marriage is part of what may have driven her to this dress. Because now in 1749, her clandestine marriage might be revealed. It's failing, and it might be revealed. And if it's revealed, there goes her position at court. Yikes. Her prospects are not looking great. And she needs a way to make her mark and to attract attention and secure her future. I don't know how she thought this would do it, but good on her. She decides, with the help of an actor at the time, to put together a costume that is representative of Iphigenia. And Iphigenia is a well known character from Greek antiquity, classical mythology that most of the people at the masquerade would have recognized. Iphigenia was a sacrificial lamb. She was the daughter of King Agamemnon who was trying to go to Troy. But to do that, Agamemnon has to sacrifice his daughter to change the winds to get their ships out of the harbor. Iphigenia is that daughter. So there are famous depictions of Iphigenia. Top is off. Agamemnon, knife in hand, Chudley decides to go as the sacrificial Iphigenia. And it's interesting because she is really gambling about sacrificing her reputation, going to the masquerade dressed as this character with her top half exposed. We don't know how exposed it was. It may have been covered by a very light gauze or by a flesh colored silk, but when people saw it, they very much thought she was naked, if not very close to naked. Princess Augusta happened to be at the masquerade. She goes to and, like, sidles over to her and tries to cover her with a shawl, and Elizabeth is like, no, no. Thank you, but no. So this was a very intentional choice, and I think she knew it was gonna make or break her. And lucky for her, it caught the attention of George ii, and it made her, at least for the time being. It got her mom a job at Wind, and it got her into the circles of George ii, where she eventually meets her husband to be the Duke of Kingston. But she, I think, is an exception to the masquerade expectation. Scandalous things can happen, but you really, really had to be bold in stepping out to do that. And she took a huge risk. And her flaunting the expectations of society and, like, brazenly just putting her sexuality on display in such a huge way in front of so many influential people shows that the masquerade could be a platform where you really could amplify who you are and move forward, but it could equally have the potential to tear you to shreds. I haven't found any examples of that, though, which is really interesting to me, because part of the criticisms is that the masquerade will destroy the reputations of women. And do you know who is circulating those criticisms? Men. I have yet to come across a female story where she has lost her reputation and been ostracized from society because of the masquerade. And to me, Elizabeth Chudleigh is like the case that that would happen. And the fact that it didn't makes me think that these stories about fear of the masquerade are actually more of a control tactic than anything else.
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Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
Absolutely. Elizabeth Chudleigh would certainly have stood out for her outrageous choice of dress. But beyond Chudleigh's rather scandalous outfit, what kinds of clothes and masks were the rest of the Georgian elites wearing to the masquerade? By the 1740s, most people, when they're
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Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
going to the masquerade, are gonna choose from three types of costumes or habits, as they called them. So we have fancy dress, which is wearing something that doesn't necessarily have a character that you need to act out. So one of the popular choices, 1740s and beyond, was Van Dyck dress. And that's in the style of a famous painter, Anthony Van Dyck, who painted a lot of the Stuart monarchs, and women especially would dress in Van Dyck dress. And so there were very specific components. There were Specific way to have the collar cut, the lace, the pearls, the draping of fabrics. They're all very, very specific things that point to this style. And because Van Dyck portraiture was so famous, people knew, oh, that's a Van Dyck dress. And so you see that in reports. You could also opt for a character costume, which is where we get things like harlequin, and people were expected. If you dress in character, you better act out that character. So if you're a harlequin, you better be romping around the masquerade with a bat, beating people, being mischievous. Same thing with a devil character. Or if you're a nun. We also see that there's some, like, irksome old ladies who are coming, who are usually Horace Walpole or his cousin in disguise antagonizing people. We see people are coming as friars. We also see that there is a third type of costume which gets criticized pretty heavily, which is the domino. And that's because it's boring. It is a cloak that you put on over what you're already wearing, and you wear a tricorn hat. And in the British masquerade, there's a different style mask you might wear with the domino, which was just the eye mask. And then I had a piece of fabric that would come down over the rest of the face to cover it. The domino came in multiple colors. Black, unfortunately, was the most popular, which is so drab because, like, you go to this beautiful event and then you see all these people wearing black cloaks and black hats and bleh. Sort of buzzkill. So those are the three main choices that people opted for. And it fluctuates on the masquerade, on who's hosting it. When it is in the 18th century, which sort of styles appear more in vogue or appear more in newspapers.
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Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
The range of outfits is something which is so intriguing about the masquerade, but upsetting that people are opting for a rather boring option. Now, as we move into the 1750s, the masquerade drops out of the social calendar for a little bit.
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Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
Why was that initially? Well, of course, we have the Bishop of London, who is just constantly criticizing and is die hard trying to extinguish the masquerade. Still, however, there is something that happens in February of 1750, and it is quite frightening to a lot of people in London. And it's an earthquake. London not only faced One earthquake in 1750, it faced two. There was one in February, and not kidding you, exactly one month after the first one, a second one hits. They are Noticeable, people are concerned. After the second earthquake, people are leaving London because they are very nervous that there is going to be a third one in April and it will destroy the city. And, of course, the Bishop of London is like, yes, this is my time. This is because the city is so corrupt, God is raising it to the ground like it his displeasure, providential divine punishment. Masquerades are still going after the February one. After the March 1, they are more subdued, and we see them start to phase out. They still exist because we have records of Horace Walpole going to them up through 1754, 1755. But then something else happens, and it's not in London, but it's in Portugal. It's in Lisbon. And there is a horrible, horrible, catastrophic earthquake in Lisbon in 1755 that destroys the city. And again, the Bishop of London uses this to say, this is the example. God is warning us if we do not stop, if we do not repent, our city will be destroyed. Look at Lisbon. City of Sin, city of vice has been destroyed. This will happen to us if we do not stop. And there was a very real fear. Now, the masquerade is not the only thing that's being blamed for the earthquakes. It is definitely part of the targeted cause. But there is a general sense of a larger need for reform from the top down, because there is a proliferation of vice in any form. We see adultery is going on, we see drunkenness is going on. Gambling is a really big one. And the masquerade is a space where all of those things can happen. So it becomes this, like, central thing that can be targeted. The masquerade does stop, and it stops from 1756. I think the last one is in January, and it doesn't come back in the Same way until 1768. Now there are little masquerades that start popping up, little daisies popping their heads up in 1762. And those are private, though. Those are residential. Those are held by the elite in their homes, and they are invitation only, and there are not many. So we do see that the bishop wins for a time to keep the masquerade at bay, in hopes that the city and the country can reform and reassess what it's doing.
- [28:45]
Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
Okay, so by the late 1760s, we see a resurgence in the masquerade. And at this time, many of the Georgian elites who started attending or even reattending were deriving lots of their wealth from imperial exploits. Did their imperialist ideas or attitudes play a role in the masquerade in any way?
- [29:06]
Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
Yes, they absolutely did. We don't really see big, big Heidegger style masquerades coming back until 1768. So the masquerade is hosted by George III's cousin, Christian VII, King of Denmark, when he is staying in England. And it was supposed to be like this incognito, quiet tour. But Christian VII can never do anything quietly. So as his, one of his leaving party things, he decides he's going to hold a huge masquerade in King's Theater in October, because he holds them in his own court at home. It is invitation only, but you could find tickets on the black market for really like 30 guineas, which is like tens of thousands of pounds today, because people were desperate to go because it's the first masquerade of this style since 1756. Like, that's a very long masquerade drought. So the people who are going, some may have attended masquerades in 1756, but others, this is their first experience of the entertainment that they've read about that they've never gotten to go to. It was robbed from them. And so it's this huge, huge night out. And a lot of the people who are there have gained their wealth through empire. And so we see that there is a theme of Eastern style dress at the masquerade. Now, that means people are dressing as, and I say these terms pulling from 18th century sources, but dressing as Persians, dressing as sultans, dressing as, quote, Chinamen, dressing as nabobs, dressing as Indian princesses. So there's a. There's a real sense of empire has come in and started to infiltrate the fancy dress culture. One of the women that I have found her correspondence is Agnetta York. And she goes to the masquerade and she has this crazy, hectic time trying to get there. Her dress wasn't made correctly and she was so frustrated because she had used this fine nabob dress that she had been gifted. So nabob was an officer or a servant of the East India Company. So she has this fabric and it's totally butchered and she can't get her arm through the sleeve, so she has to remake it herself. There's all this traffic getting to the masquerade because of course, everyone is going, but she's in this Eastern dress that she was so proud of until she had to fix it herself. And she meets other people there and they are also dressed in Empire style. They are wearing Indian garments and they are trying to portray Indian people. She also recognizes a couple key Empire figures, most notable of whom, and problematic is Lord Clive, and he is hardly in costume. He's wearing his trappings of empire from his exploits when he was in India. He is covered in diamonds. One of his right hand men is with him, Luke Scrafton, who is also wearing Lord Clive's jewels. And it's fascinating because Agnetta York picks up on the fact that Scrafton is wearing Clive's jewelry. But jewels and diamonds were a way to signify networks visually. Today we have brands that help us, but in the 18th century, people could pick up like, oh, that's his gold chain, that's his brooch, that's so that they can make these connections again, representing wealth, status, fashionability, networks through what you're wearing. But we do see that there is definitely a trend of empire dress at this masquerade, and that carries through to later masquerades as well.
- [32:54]
Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
As we move into the 1770s, do we see any more kind of problematic dressing at the masquerades?
- [33:01]
Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
Yes, we do. And today this is still something that we're seeing in media is the question of blackface, which is problematic for a large number of reasons. But this was very much a thing at the masquerade. And the first appearance I've come across in sort of a very recognizable way is the character of Mungo. So Mungo is a character from theater at the time, and he is one of the characters in the performance of the Padlock by Isaac Bickerstaff. Mungo is the first character to bring in a West Indies accent to the stage, which then gets picked up and brought into the masquerade. Now Mungo is being portrayed by someone named Mr. Mendez, who is an actor, and there are comments about the way that his face is blacked, the wool that he's put on as part of the costume, and of course, the acting out of this stereotype. And other scholars have done fantastic work on the perpetuation of racial stereotypes. So now you have the elite or the fashionable population playing with racial identity in a way that fits their conceptions of the power structure and the dynamics, and most often reinforces those things as opposed. So, yeah, fine, it's transgressive. You get to be Mungo. But that wasn't the case. If a person of color came to the masquerade, they couldn't do white face. They had to dress in a costume that was either equivalent to so horizontally the same as or below what their status was in Georgian society. And we see this with Mai, who is a Pacific Islander, who is in London, and when he goes to the Masquerade, he dresses as a person of color, because he is a person of color. And in a different masquerade, he dresses in a domino, which we know is a neutral costume, where you're not moving up or down the social scale. You're just sort of staying where you are. So, yes, a masquerade is transgressive for the rich white people who get to go, but it is not transgressive for everyone. And so that's why I think we need to be careful when we say that the masquerade was a truly transgressive space only to a certain extent, because it did reinforce certain parts of this very strict Georgian hierarchy.
- [35:31]
Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
As we move through the 1770s and the masquerade continues to develop and expands as a phenomenon, is there ever a moment when the masquerade is expanded to include non elite people?
- [35:42]
Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
Eventually, is the short answer. Theresa Cornell is sort of the person who picks up where Heidegger left off. She sees this, as Heidegger did, as an opportunity to make money. So her masquerades, they blow people's socks off. They are gobsmacked mouths on the floor. Like, they could not be more ostentatious, more fashionable, more lavish, more over the top, to the point where, like, she has goldfish swimming in water features on the dinner tables at masquerades. Like, this woman was the hostess with the mostess. Like, they called her the Empress of Pleasure. And it totally makes sense. So her masquerades start out as even more expensive than what Heidegger's are. But she's not the only one who sees commercial value in the masquerade and profit. And unfortunately, she's really bad with money. So even though she's, like, raking it in, she goes bankrupt a couple times and ends up in prison and comes back and hosts more match. She's like a phoenix, Judith, just back and forth, back and forth. But we see competition start coming in, and that happens when the Pantheon opens, which is just. It's like, less than half a mile away. They're so close together, they're down the street from each other, and the Pantheon opens, and it is the new thing. And so now the Pantheon and Teresa at Carlisle House are in competition, which means they have to start thinking about prices and ways to maintain the interest and the pockets of the elite. But it's not just those two. There's other places that are hosting masquerades as well. We have Ranela Gardens over in Chelsea, which is not as easy to get to, but you have All Max's hosting masquerades, you have Hanover Square there. There are masquerades happening all over London. And so we see novelty start coming in as a way to try and draw people in. And that's expensive. So there are attempts to drop ticket prices, but it is to the detriment of the people who are hosting them. And once the word is out that people of lesser quality might slightly have the opportunity to get in because ticket prices have dropped by 50%, then the up tops don't want to go. The elite don't want to go. Just because they can go doesn't mean they want to mix with people of lower status. It's like the pleasure gardens. You can go and walk around, but just because you're in the same space as the people above or below you doesn't mean you're going to strike up a conversation over coffee. The elite are still going in the 1780s and they start doing some different things. And one of the leaders among them is the Prince of Wales, future George iv. He loves masquerades. His archive is so interesting and all of the like things. He loved to buy fake noses, that was one of his things for masquerade habit shops. But he would often buy like group costume. So he. You would see like a list of different ones that he would buy, not just for himself, but then for other people who would go with him. But we see him going to masquerades and so that sort of builds the hype up again for some of the elites, some of the Beaumont who are going to be going. And so in 1785 there's this impresario and his name is as Carlo Delpini and he was a fantastic stage performer, but he was also hosting entertainments in London and one of the entertainments he decides to host is a Venetian themed masquerade at the Pantheon. And he gets the approval from the Prince of Wales, the endorsement, and he puts this in the newspapers and he's saying about how he is going to recreate Venice for people to come to the masquerade. And he charges, I think he does charge two guineas, which is expensive. And the turnout is not great. And it's so sad because he puts all this effort in. He brings in musicians, he brings in actors, he brings in other vocalists and he gets all sorts of different food. And he completely decks out the Pantheon. It's a huge structure and the inside of it is supposed to look like the dome of the Hagia Sophia. So it's very impressive. And so after this, he's at a loss because he didn't get the turnout he wanted. So he goes to the Prince of Wales, he's like, hey, can you pay me for this event that I put on for you? And what do we think happens? Does the Prince of Wales pay out? Does the Prince of Wales ever pay out? No. So Carlo Delpini ends up in hundreds of pounds of debt after this masquerade because the tickets didn't sell the way he wanted to and he was under the impression that the Prince of Wales was. Was sponsoring it and he wasn't. So, like, this goes on, not kidding you, for 30 years, that Carlo Delpini is trying to get his money back from the Prince of Wales and he never does. That's very sad. So we do see that the fashionable are still going, but if they are, they might just be wearing dominoes because they are getting a bit been there, done that. And there are so many to choose from that the market is saturated and the novelty is starting to wear off, even if the masquerade itself has a novelty feature added to it.
- [40:49]
Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
So by the end of the 18th century, we've got masquerades which are increasingly sort of accessible to the middling sorts. It's a regular form of social entertainment. But the masquerades are perhaps a little bit less intriguing than they once were to the social elites. This might sound surprising to some of our listeners who might have an idea of a glittering Georgian masquerade from the Netflix series Bridgerton. Do you think that Bridgerton reflects the reality of Georgia masquerades?
- [41:19]
Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
The masquerade in the 1790s, Randall of Pleasure Gardens is the place that picks up the masquerade and makes it for everyone. And some of the ways that happens is they have dressing rooms on site. So now, instead of getting your habit days before the masquerade and preparing, that's a whole process now that has been shrunk down. You can also buy your ticket at the door and you can use cash. Previously, you were not able to use cash, you had to use credit, which means you have to have kudos, which means you have to have status. People have to know who you are. They have to trust that you're going to pay for your ticket or you have to be part of a subscription list. So all of these changes mean that now the masquerade is more accessible to more people than it ever has been before. The other thing that they tack on are royal celebrations. So we see masquerades going on for the King's birthday. We see Masquerades going on for Queen Charlotte's birthday. We see masquerades going on to commemorate famous battles, to commemorate famous treaties. So they really become a point of celebration and a point of spectacle. They've always been about spectacle, but this is larger sort of national spectacle. The elite are still going to these here and there, not perhaps as much as they used to, but the elite are now taking the masquerade in for themselves. And we see this happening in townhouses. And this is where Bridgerton comes in. Because the Bridgerton masquerade, which I ate up with my eyes, it was so lovely to watch, is a townhouse masquerade. That's exactly what it is. And I mean, like, I scrutinized. I think I've watched that episode like five times, probably, and paused and examined so many different parts of it because I just. I couldn't get enough of it. I loved it so much. The invitation, that's exactly what they were. They were small invitations that were sent out. And we see in the early 1800s, Mrs. Orbee Hunter, who has her wealth in empire, when she sends out invitations to her townhouse masquerades, she has them embossed because she is so worried that people are going to try to forge them to sneak in, like Sophie does in the Bridgerton one. The townhouse masquerade is really a way that the leading lady of the ton can show off their status and bring the elite back to the masquerade and use this as a way to say, oh, my money, my fashionability, come enjoy this masquerade at my house. And the different aspects of the Bridgerton masquerade. Now, the Sophie part, it's Cinderella story, right? It's ever after. It's the sneaking in. And I'm sure sneaking in did happen, but the other aspects of it, the floral arrangements, 100%, that's what they were doing. Mrs. Walker, whose masquerades were renowned through the fashionable scene in London, I imagine her masquerades looked exactly like what Violet Bridgerton's masquerade looked like. The floral arrangements that, okay, the desserts were probably, you know, those are more modern looking because we might not recognize what 18th century desserts looked like on screen. But the floor is a very deep celestial blue. And floors of dance spaces, ballrooms, could be covered in chalk, which, oh, my God, what a mess. If you ever played with sidewalk chalk, like, that would get all over your dress, all over your shoes. But they could have also been sort of like a tarp type thing that was painted and Then rolled out to put over the floor to create an atmosphere. The costumes in the Bridgerton Masquerade are made for the modern viewer. I am not going to pick apart Bridgerton fashion because Bridgerton is a lovely thing that brings people into the 18th, 18th century. And Bridgerton is fiction and we need, like we have to understand Bridgerton is fiction and it's an adaptation and it's an interpretation and it's a beautiful one. But the costumes are not 18th century. Some of the characters are. People did go as Elizabeth I to the Masquerade and that's actually my favorite costume. If you find her, that costume is so good. People did go as characters from literature, they did go as Greek mythology. Right. We have Lady Danbury and her brother showing up as Zeus. That was a thing we also see. If you look in the background, you can see there's someone who's wearing a turban and that person who is wearing that habit, that sort of like sultan figure is very similar looking to what 18th century Eastern figures looked like. The person who is wearing the costume is a person of color. So that clicks with what the 18th century is doing. Queen Charlotte would not have gone to a house party like that, though.
- [45:56]
Interviewer (Charlotte Vosper)
That's a really interesting insight into what the Georgia Masquerade was really like for our listeners. If you're interested in finding out more about the real history behind season four of Bridgerton, then we've got a brilliant article by Felicity Day about cross class relationships in Regency era England. You can find it on the History Extra app or website, but I'll also pop a link to it down below. Now, finally, with that in mind, what understanding or view of the Masquerade and its history do you hope to offer through your book?
- [46:26]
Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
I think the Masquerade can help us understand ourselves today because the culture of Georgian society was very consumer driven. And I feel like today, with the way social media and influencers and advertisements everywhere just bombarding us, we are also very consumer driven. And so I hope this gives us some perspective to maybe more closely consider the choices that we're making in what we are consuming, how we are consuming it. So ethical choices about shopping, about fancy dress, about appropriation, and trying to make sure that we are not reinforcing harmful power structures with our choices.
- [47:12]
Podcast Host
That was Megan Kobsa speaking to Charlotte. Vosper Meghan is a historian of leisure in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly Georgian costume, fancy dress and material culture. Her most recent book is the Masquerade, a history of extravagance and intrigue,
- [47:43]
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- [47:50]
Historian/Expert (Megan Kobza)
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- [47:51]
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