Better than Bridgerton: the real Georgian masquerade

Have you ever wondered what went on behind the doors of glittering Georgian masquerades? In this episode of the History Extra podcast, Megan Cobzer 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. Your book explores the glittering world of the Georgia 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? 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.

We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (45 minutes, 7,554 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.

No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 5 episodes for $3.49, and monthly plans are cheaper still.