Newsletter May 2020

They wore them for fun and amusement. Ever wonder what a masked ball or bal masque was like in Paris? Specifically, during the Second Empire? Well, let me paint a picture. First of all, you’d be just one of hundreds invited. Make that thousands. Yes, often four thousand drank, ate danced and did other things in the garden of the Tuileries Palace. That is if it was one of Empress Eugenie’s balls. There would have been a profusion of flowers, wax candles, gas chandeliers that greeted the extravagantly attired guests when they arrived. On the stairs were the stone-faced Emperor’s guards with shiny silver helmets topped with big white feathers. In the great ball room, a room where frescos abound and gilded to the teeth, a raised dais was built or the Empress and Emperor and their special guests. The Empress would have been heavily enameled (quite literally paint that would harden) under her outer mask. Dancing began at 10:30 (different sources sight slightly different times), with the Emperor and Empress making their appearance at 11 when they strolled through the halls. The first dance was a lively quadrille. Dancing would end about 1 when Emperor and Empress retired, the guests moved on to a many course meal and danced until two or three. Men wore uniforms and the women outrageous gowns and diamonds galore. Taking a page from Lady Gaga’s playboy, a dozen young women once dressed as bee’s (Napoleon’s emblem) and brought into the room in hives. It was an opportunity to dress scandalously. One – and I mean just one – of the Emperor’s mistresses came as the Queen of Hearts, her bodice and voluminous skirts adored with hearts. It was said Eugenie wondered at how low the woman’s heart really was.

Another woman came as Eve, well you can imagine. Another dressed as an African Queen sitting in a golden chariot pulled by slaves. These masked balls were said to be an agreeable distraction. . . perhaps we need to think of our masks as the same?