Fancy Dress Balls

Fancy Balls from The Hermit in London or Sketches of English Manners (1819) Felix MacDonough Vol. 3 at 127-136

I was present the other night, at Lady _______’s fancy ball. . . . A fancy ball has one peculiar attraction and advantage over balls in general, because it partakes of all the good of a masquerade, without having it exceptional qualities. The liberty, or rather the licentiousness, which the mask favours, is here excluded; for whatever character his Grace or her Ladyship may assume, still does the original stand confessed to answer for any trespass on the law of delicacy, or any deviation from the most refined urbanity.

A Spanish Cavalier may be gallant; but he must be respectful; he may tune his guitar to a love strain; but he must not outstep the limits of propriety. The . . . Spanish female dancer, may dance to the light cassinette; but her only levity will be that of her nimble feet; no mask will deprive you of her natural beauties, nor screen any dereliction of decorum.

All, at a fancy ball, is (or ought to be) taste, elegance, and correct adherence to costume, to dignity, or at all events to appropriateness of character, to an observance of the peculiarity of dance regulated by the country represented, to the air, to the language, and to the music of that nation in whose garb the Bella signora, or the Austrin hussar, may be habited; thus giving all the grace without the noise and confusion of a masked ball.

Besides, a masquerade bespeaks mixed company; whereas, a fancy divertissement argues selection of beauty and of fashion, chastity of taste, variety of attraction, and combination of talent You have not, at these fetes, noisy watchmen, riotous sailors, savages from Otaheite and a parcel of low ballad singers, mop-squeezers out of place, lawyers and doctors with trite remark chimney-sweepers and hay-makers nor any characters in so low a walk of life as neither to deserve imitation, nor to be introduced into the first and the most polished society. Such characters suit a carnival; but become not the gilded saloon, the hall ornamented with the chaste decorations of ancient Greece, and beautified by the works of Rome, the glowing pencils of a Titian and a Correggio, where all is classical, historical, and emblematical.

In such a place, the beauties of history and of poetry should appear both in lovely, living models, and on canvass; but nothing base or common should intrude. The eye seeks everywhere for the tasteful and ornamental, and cannot put up with aught which is vulgar, or in the remotest degree inelegant.

At the fete in question, all were attentive to their characters. A most lovely woman gave a suitable representation to the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, and mingled sympathy with the natural interest which a beautiful female always inspires. A noble marquis was splendidly habited as a Spanish Don and played very expressively on the guitar. We had a Bolero by beautiful performers of the first fashion; a waltz in character, by Hungarian ladies in perfect costume, and by fine young Hussars; a quadrille by sixteen paysans et paysannes of different French provinces, the characters all well supported, the dresses strictly peculiar to the province, the whole party dancing admirably well, and crowned with the vine and with flowers, as if at the getting in of a vintage.

A pas de deux was performed, in an operatical stye of excellence by amateurs; and the promenading in character had a splendid effect. Here were sultans and sultanas, characters from Shakespear’s dramas, the costume of Greece and Rome, graces, nymphs, sylphs, and heathen divinities.

But whilst I am on the subject of costume and of drapery in particular, it may not be out of place to add a few words for my female readers for whose amusement in particular I have written this sketch. The art of disposing drapery depends on four things, the laws of gravity and of motion, which command the sweeping train, and loosely floating robe or the adhesive folds which embrace the form, cling to the limbs, and hang in elegant festoon. Exposure and concealment are the next attendant qualities; unity and correctness conclude the dress. The draperies of the ancients were in their folds, very similar to fine muslin; so that our modern beauties can with ease imitate the ancient models of perfection

All this, as well as head-dress, attitude and deportment, were faithfully attended to on this occasion, by a number of women of the first figure and fashion. We had the harp, the lute, and the lyre; and, besides characteristic instrumental harmony, and dancing, we had, after supper, vocal performances in many languages and songs, duets, trios, and glees; for the nobility and gentry assembled could support their characters in the language of the country represented, instead of as too many of our masquerades exhibiting a mute Hidalgo, because he could not speak Spanish; a pantomimic Italian dancer because the lady was ignorant of that language; or a German, Russian, Prussian, or Hollander, speaking bad French or a gibberish of his own composition, if called on to answer in the tongue of which his costume bespoke.

All these are great faults at a masquerade. But at a dress and fancy ball, they are as unpardonable as a gouty Harlequin, a dowager Venus, a silent Frenchman, or a merry-andrew monk. Indeed, I never saw the wit or the advantage of dragging Nuns and Friars from the seclusion of the Cloister, to be made objects of ridicule in a ball room. The improbability of such characters appearing in such a place, is at variance with probability; no amusement can be derived from the jeu d’esprit of such performers; and the mere entertainment of degrading any church or any religious habit, is only fitted for an uncivilized savage, or an unprincipled libertine.

The last peculiar advantage which a fancy ball has over a masked one is, that at the latter, disfiguring disguises frequently conceal beauty and fine proportions; whereas, at the former every one tries to adopt the most becoming dress, or to represent the character which her or she has the most talent for, and which is not at variance with appearance. At a masquerade most people wish not to be recognized; at a fancy fete all are anxious to be distinguished. Often, in the masquerade the mind is on the rack to invent an impenetrable disguise; whilst in the fashionable divertissement, the taste alone is employed in devising something new elegant and appropriate.

A gentleman who has been black-balled at a club, and who was very anxious, on that account, not to be known at the following masquerade, asked his friend what disguise was most likely to preserve the incognito inviolable. The friend replied, “Go in the uniform of the club, and every one will be sure that it is not you.”

On the contrary, at these elegant fetes, here a person's taste is identified with his costume, every one is anxious to be either what he should be, or at all events what he would be, and on this account the graces and loves, warriors, heroes, and the great characters of antiquity were very numerous at our assembly, and were, some of them, very ably supported.