Advent Calendar Day 15~A Virtual Masquerade Ball!

An advent treat for this 15th day of December! A gallery of costumes for a Twelfth Night masked ball!

Twelfth Night masked balls often involved assigning characters to attendees. Typically, each guest would randomly select a character to play by drawing a slip of paper from a hat or bag upon arrival to the ball.  Some hostesses would send characters around to her guests so that they could come already dressed as their character.  Others might provide dress up items for their guests to don after characters had been chosen.   Guests had to remain in character for the entire evening. If a guest broke out of character during the night they would have to pay a forfeit later.

Besides the King and Queen, a variety of characters, were often pulled from popular literature and plays. Common characters were Sir Gregory Goose, Sir Tumbelly Clumsy, Miss Fanny Fanciful and Mrs. Candour. Sets of pre-made characters could be purchased from stationers, or a family might copy them from books on games and merry-making.

Rachel Revel offered an extensive set of characters in her book as well as instructions that as each character is drawn the conductor of the game arrange them in order of their number and when all the guests have characters, they may each read lines to introduce their character in turn.

Fanny Austen-Knight wrote of set of characters her family enjoyed at a Twelfth Night ball in a letter to Miss Dorothy Clapman February, 1812.

On Twelfth Night we had a delightful evening…about our dress King and Queen, W Morris was King, I was Queen, Papa– Prince Busty Trusty, Mama– Red Riding Hood, Edward– Paddy O’Flaherty, G.– Johnny Bo-peep, H.– Timothy Trip, W.– Moses Abrahams, Eliz.– Mrs O’Flaherty, Ma.– Granny Grump, C– Cupid (by his own desire), Louisa– Princess Busty Trusty, Uncle H.B.– Punch, Aunt H.B.– Poll Mendicant, Jane– Punch’s Wife, Mary– Columbine, Uncle John– Jerry the Milkman, Mrs Morris– Sukey Sweetlips, Sophia– Margery Muttonpie. Soon After, according to a preconstructed plan, some of us retired upstairs to dress Jane as Punch’s wife, in a witches hat, a green petticoat and a scarlet shawl (the remains of our last year’s masquerade) Mrs M.J. and I in beggars clothes to sing carols at the parlour door, and myself in a long scarlet cloak for a royal robe and a wreath of natural primroses (which we had gathered and made up in the morning for whoever would be queen) around my head.

Here’s a gallery of Georgian, Regency and Victorian masquerade costumes for a little more inspiration.

The last costume is a weather vane in case you were wondering. The Last image is Thomas Couture’s “The Supper after the Masked Ball.”

For more about masquerade balls, check out this post.

 

17 comments

Skip to comment form

    • NANCY L DUELL on December 15, 2020 at 10:09 am
    • Reply

    I always loved costume balls or parties. It would be fun to do this this Holiday Season with my family. Thank you for sharing and your giveaway.LOVE your writing. Merry Christmas🎁

    1. I think a masquerade party for the holidays would be such fun!

    • Glynis on December 15, 2020 at 10:55 am
    • Reply

    I’ve never attended a masquerade or fancy dress party! This is probably lucky as I’m useless at costumes (as my children would no doubt confirm!)
    I love some of the illustrations here, so elaborate! Thank you for sharing and please don’t enter me in the giveaway as I have this book.

    1. One year two of my boys went to a costume party as a washing machine and a pile of dirty laundry. Simplest costumes ever!

    • Agnes on December 15, 2020 at 11:11 am
    • Reply

    Is “Illumination Ambulante” (second row, right) a costume? It’s a pretty uncomfortable one (how could you dance???) and even rather dangerous, carrying open flames around among dancers and draperies.
    Very interesting! I’d love to be at a Twelfth Night ball… (loved the one in your book!)

    1. I had the same thought about that particular costume. Yikes!

    • Eva Edmonds on December 15, 2020 at 8:12 pm
    • Reply

    The Twelfth Night Ball has always sounded like such fun. Besides the costumes, I like the idea of the Queen and King. Thank you for the illustrations and the giveaway.

    • Sheila L. Majczan on December 15, 2020 at 10:11 pm
    • Reply

    I can’t imagine how cumbersome those costumes were. So glad I live in modern times. I used to sew one new Halloween costume per year for my 3 children – rotated whose turn it was to select what I would sew. The other 2 got a store bought one or wore a hand-me-down one. Thanks for sharing…and for a chance at a prize.

    • Carole in Canada on December 15, 2020 at 10:29 pm
    • Reply

    Well, they certainly are realistic looking people in costumes! What fun the Austen family had with theirs! Please do not enter me in the giveaway. I read and loved ‘Dragon Persuasion’!

    • denise on December 16, 2020 at 12:26 am
    • Reply

    love all of these costumes

    • Buturot on December 16, 2020 at 1:08 am
    • Reply

    Loved this. Never been to a costume ball/dance. That will be fun have such like in a New year Party..

    • Lois on December 16, 2020 at 3:58 am
    • Reply

    Thanks for showing all the costumes. In one of my “other lives” I am a textile artist (but not a costumer). I have read all the other books in your Dragons series, except for Dragon Persuasion.

    • Taswmom on December 16, 2020 at 5:04 am
    • Reply

    A dragon would have been amazing at a regency masquerade! And Persuasion is my favorite Austen story, so what could possibly be any better?

    • Elizabeth on December 16, 2020 at 10:49 am
    • Reply

    Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Always fun to hear from you. Merry Christmas!

  1. Thanks for sharing these great, historical costumes!

    • Madenna Urbanski on December 17, 2020 at 9:40 pm
    • Reply

    Thank you for the pictures and the history. I never quite understood why every author’s description of the Twelfth Night ball was different. It makes sense that the hostess would come up with her own list.

    • Linny B on December 18, 2020 at 2:12 am
    • Reply

    Really interesting illustrations. I’ve always wondered what everyone wearing at Twefth Night. Happy Holidays!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.