Bridgerton and Modern Interpretations

Have you ever wondered what went on behind the doors of glittering Georgian masquerades? In this episode of the History Extra podcast, Mean Cobbser reveals all Speaking to Charlotte Vosper, she traces the development of the phenomenon. uncovers the scandals and launches us into the dazzling world of Georg and Entertertainment And please note, this episode does contain themes of a sexual nature explores the glittering world of the Georgia masquerade as it developed across the eighteenth century So let's start at the beginning When was the first musquerade in Britain Where did the idea or the concept come from? 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 Gardens, so it's south of the Thames in about seventeen eleven. And we see that up here in a newspaper they don't have a big bite. peoplee aren't really taking to them So they fade out 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 Stuart monarchy. Charles II was a big court mask host, as well as the tutor period. and we see that with Henry theIh, Elizabeth I first. And those were more scripted, but they were along the lines of wearing fancy dress or costumes and exclusive entertainments. Then after seventeen eleven, when is the next example of a masquerade that comes along? seventeen thirteen, 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 eighteenth century. 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'rmont And he is in London to celebrate the Treaty of Utrecht with u 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 seventeen eleven, 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 bring that to the English elite and show them a good time on the French dime as an act of good faith. So what would it have been like then to go to the Duke's masquerade? Who would have attended? The Duke's masquerades would have been attended by the top one percent 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 had 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 courourt of Versailles I think there's an attraction to it and an 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. Yeah, it's interesting that the masquerade is actually a cultural adoption in Britain, this sort of intriguing, growing phenomenon has been brought to Britain by the likes of the French ammbassador the masquerade develop beyond the Duke's initial masquerades in around seventeen thirteen? 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. hisis name is Johan Jakob Heidegger. He's known as the ugliest man in London, which just, you know, u glaz man in London is hosting an entertainment where you cover your face. Like could we find a better sort of match for him, pooor thing He comes in from Switzerland and he loves Italian opera. So he starts working at the King' Theater in the Hay Market, 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's 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 two hundred two hundred and fifty pounds 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 first And then also the recognition that this is a space that sort of exists outside the court as a space for socialization also the temptation to transgress the strict social expectations of the Georgian period brings people in and starts the money flowing You mentioned there about the masquerade becoming this space of social transgression kind of masquerades was Heideiger hosting. What sort of phenomenon did he create? 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 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 We're gonna 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 tarnish your reputation in a way that then you're going to become ostracised in society. And we see this with William Byird II, who is all sorts of a problematic person for many, many reasons He owned plantations in Virginia. He was an enslaver. 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 Bird This is not the surprising part. William Bird was a sex addict. And he is in London and he goes to the masqueres. 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 Byd would be there for that reason. However That is not why he goes William Byrd 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 status. And William Bird is of status. He has a huge plantation in Virginia However, he needs to make sure that he's sticking to the behavioral expectations of George in 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 twenty first century brains So even when we try to adopt the eighteenth century perspective, we'll never fully understand But he does basically like dry hump someone at the masquerade, and like in the eighteenth century, this'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 eighteenth 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. Mbe even dirty talking as opposed to like physical intercourse going on. Yeah, that's interesting to think that making love meant just flirting. Yeah in the eighteenth century. I think that example of William Byirrd taps into that complexity around what counts as transgression, how much opportunity there is to transgress social norms in a masquerade space As you've said We have a tendency to think of the musquerade as this hot seat of debauchery and immoral behaviour, but William Byird's example definitely counters that Chans. think of the masquerade in those terms more widely than Were there any criticisms of the masquerade once it had burst onto London's social scene? 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 firsth accounts of it that we have are from people of status So that sort of skews our knowledge of what happened in the masqu grades 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 diaries are filled with lists. of what people are there 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 seventeen twenty four, he prints a scathing satirical engraving of Heidegger and the masques 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 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, o, you could do that too? Even if you can't come in, there's 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, couldould you please just stop the masquerade? That's going to 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 So if these criticisms didn't prevent the musquerade from existing, How did it go on to develop and become more popular under Hdigger and beyond? 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 Ridoto. which is a popular entertainment that actually is in Fenice 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 there talking together about the masquerade without calling it the masquerade to not set off the bishops again. There is this agreement that Heideker is only going to host six a year instead of every single week 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 Hanovarians 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. four 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 itself. Are there any particular examples of elites doing that which really struck you when you were doing your research for the book? Yeah. So Elizabeth Chudley would definitely not wear what she wore to court Elizabeth Chudley 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 next in line to be King. under George II. Elizabeth Chudley is beautiful. She's charismatic. She's sparkling and witty a little bit, you know, voluptuous and as a maid of honor on Augustus's courourt, 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 seventeen forty nine 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 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 putut together a costume that is representative of Iphigenea An Iphigeneia is a well known character from Greek antiquity, classical mythology that most of the people at the masquerade would have recognized Ifenea 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. Iphigenea is that daughter. So there are famous depictions of Iphigenea pop is off, Agmemnon, knife in hand. Chudley decides to go as the sacrificial Ephigenea. 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 going to 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 Windsor 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 deterior to shreds. I haven't found any examples of that. ough, 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 Chudley 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. Absolutely. Elizabeth Chudley would certainly have stood out for her outrageous choice of dress Beyond Chudley's rather scandalous outfit What kinds of clothes and masks were the rest of the Georgian elites wearing to the masquerade by the seventeen forties? Most people when they're going to the masquerade are going to 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 seventeen forties and beyond, was Van Dyke dress and that's in the style of a famous painter Anthy Van Dyke who painted a lot of the Stuart monarchs and women, especially would dress in Van Dyke 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 Dyke portraiture was so famous, people knew, oh, that's a Van Dyke 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 Horus 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 is 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 iller whichich is so drab because like you go to this beautiful event and then you see all these people wearing black cloaks and black hats andgh sort of buzz kill 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 eighteenth century, which sort of styles appear more in vogue or appear more in newspapers. 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 seventeen fifties The masquerade drops out of the social calendar for a little bit. Why was that? Initially 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's something that happens in February of seventeen fifty, and it is quite frightening to a lot of people in London And it's an earthquake. London not only faced one earthquake in seventeen fifty, 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 peopleeople 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 in his displeasure Pidential divine punishment Masquerades are still going after the February one, after the March one They are more subdued and we see them start to phase out. They still exist because we have records of Horus Walpole going to them up through seventeen fifty four, seventeen fifty five thenen something else happens. and it's not in London, but it's in Portugal, it's in Lisbon And there is horrible horrible catastrophic earthquake in Lisbon in seventeen fifty five that destroys the city And I'm 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 An 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 seventeen fifty six. I think the last one is in January, and it doesn't come back in the same way until seventeen sixty eight are little masquerades that start popping up. Daisy's popping their heads in seventeen sixty two And those are private though, those are residential, thoseose 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. Okay, so by the late seventeen sixties 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 their imperialist ideas or attitudes play a role in the masquerade in any way? Yes They absolutely did We don't really see big, big Heideiger style masquerades coming back until seventeen sixty eight The masquerade is hosted by George IId's cousin. Christian theIh King of Denmark when he is staying in England. And it was supposed to be like this incognito quiet tour, but Christian theII 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. 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 thirty 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 seventeen fifty six. Like that's a very long masquerade drought So the people who are going, some may have attended masquerades in seventeen fifty six, 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 gained their wealth through empire. And so we see that there is a theme of Eastern style dress. at the masqu rate. Now that means people are dressing as and I say these ferms pulling from eighteenth century sources, but dressing as Persians, dressing as sultans dressing as quote, Chinaan dressing as Nababs, dressing as Indian princesses. So 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 Nabab dressed that she had been gifted. So Nabab was an officer or a servant of the East India Comany So she has this fabric and it's totally butchered 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 easastern dress that she was so proud of until she had to mix 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 also recognizes a couple key emmpire 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 Egnuti York picks up on the fact that Scrafton is wearing Clive's jewelry Jewels and diamonds were a way to signify networks visually. Today we have brands that help us, but in the eighteenth century, people could pick up like, oh That's his cold 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 t of Empire dress at this masquerade and that carries through to later masquerades as well As we move into the seventeen seventies, do we see any more kind of problematic dressing at the masquerades? Yes, we do And today, this is still something that we're seeing in media is the question of black face. 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 Muno So Mongo is 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 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 elitite 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 masperate, 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 Ma, who's a Pacific islander, who is in London And when he goes to the masquerade, he dresses as a person of color 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, 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. As we move through the seventeen seventies and the masquerade continues to develop and expands as a phenomenon Is there ever a moment when the masquerade is expanded to include nonolly people? Eventually, is the short answer. Tsa Cornnellis 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 goobsmacked 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 mostest. L they called her the Empress of pleasure and it totally makes sense. So her masquerades start out as even more expensive than what hidekers are, but she's not the only one who sees commercial value in the masquerade and profits And unfortunately, she's really bad with money. So even though she's like raking it in, she goes bankrupt a couple of times and ends up in prison and comes back and hosts M. She's like a phoenix, she 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 Theereresa 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 too. 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 Maxes hosting masquerades, you have Hanover Square. 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 fifty percent, 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 I've 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, It doesn't mean you're going strike up a conversation over coffee. The elite are still going in the seventeen eighties 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 haabit shops But he would often buy like group costume. So he 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 buildus the hype up again for some of the elites, some of the Beaumond who are going to be going And so in seventeen eighty five, there's this impressario and his name is 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 puts this in the newspapers and he's saying about how he is going to recreate Venice for people to come to the masqu raade 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 Hja 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 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 So Carlo Del Pini 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 sponsoring it and he wasn't So like this goes on not kidding you for thirty years that Carlo Del Pini 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. So by the end of the eighteenth 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? The masquerade in the seventeen nineties, Randel of Pleaser 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 All of these changes mean that now the masquerade is more accessible to more people than it ever has been before 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 birth. 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 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 mass grade. That's exactly what it is. And I mean, like I scrutinize, I think I've watched that episode like five times probably and paused and examined so many different parts of it becausecause 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 eighteen hundreds, Mrs. Orby 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 ladies of the town 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 sofie part It's Cinderella story, right? It's Ever afterfter. It's the sneaking In. and I'm sure sneaking in did happen. but the other aspects of it, the floral arrangements hundred percent, 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, those are more modern looking because we might not recognize what eighteenth 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 Godd, what a mess. If you' ever played with sidewalk shalock, like, ye that would get all over your dress, all over your shoes. 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 pick apart Bridgerton fashion because Bridgerton is a lovely thing that brings people into the eighteenth century And Bridgerton is fiction And we 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 eighteenth 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 eighteenth century Eastern figures looked like. The person who is wearing the costume is a person of color. so that with what the eighteenth century is doing, Queen Charlotte would not have gone to a house party like that though. 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 Fhelicity Day about cross class relationships in Regency Ea 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 musquerade and its history do you hope to offer through your book 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, 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 ation and trying to make sure that we are not reinforcing harmful power structures our choices That was Meghan Cobser speaking to Charlotte Vosper. Meghan is a historian of leisure in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly Jeordan costume, fancy dress, and material culture Her most recent book is The Masquerade, A history of Eravagance and intrigue