| Set List | Order of Procession:
'Tudor Quadrilles', arr. Her Grace the Duchess of Somerset,
'Elizabeth and her Court', arr. The Hon.Mrs.Alfred Lyttelton,
'Hippolyta and her Amazons', arr. The Lady Maud Warrender,
'Shakespeare's Lovers', arr. Lady Tree,
'Two Gentlemen of Verona', arr. The Lady Northcliffe,
'Much Ado about Nothing', arr. Mrs.George Alexander,
'Macbeth', arr. Lady Baring and Lady Clementine Waring,
'A Midsummer Night's Dream', arr. Her Grace the Duchess of Wellington,
'Richard II', arr. Lady Mond,
'Troilus and Cressida', arr. Mrs.Hwfa Williams,
'Henry V', arr. Lady Rodney,
'The Tempest', arr. The Countess of Dartmouth and the Countess of Dartrey,
'Henry VI', arr. Lady Paget,
'Anthony and Cleopatra', arr. The Lady Alington,
'Henry VIII', arr. The Countess of Wemyss and Muriel Countess de la Warr,
'Hamlet', arr. The Countess of Huntingdon,
'Merry Wives of Windsor', arr. Lady Dawkins and Lady Templemore,
'King Lear', arr. Mrs.Charles Hunter,
'Two Gentlemen of Verona', arr. Lady Speyer,
'Othello', arr. Mrs St Loe Strachey,
'Comedy of Errors', arr. Mrs.Silver,
'Romeo and Juliet', arr. Lady Meyer,
'As You Like It', arr. The Viscountess Ridley,
'A Winter's Tale', arr. The Lady Sheffield,
'Taming of the Shrew', arr. The Lady Savile,
'Love's Labour's Lost', arr. Florence, Lady Clarke Jervoise,
'Merchant of Venice', arr. The Marchioness of Salisbury,
'The Tempest', arr. The Viscountess Maitland,
'Twelfth Night', arr. Mrs.George Cornwallis West.
Dance Programme:
Valse: 'Die Geschiedene Frau', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Espana', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'L'Etoile', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Two-Step: 'Carnival', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Whirl of the Waltz', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
'Processional March', Ernest Bucalossi, (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Quadrille: 'Elizabethan Quadrilles', arr. Emerson Whithorn, (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Valse Royale', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Two-Step: 'Nuts and May', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Chocolate Soldier', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Lancers: 'Pyramus and Thisbe', arr. James M. Gallatly, (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Two-Step: 'Toppe Dogge', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Heart's Delight', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Quadrille: 'Tudor Quadrilles', arr. Corelli Windeatt, (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Luxembourg', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
One-Step: 'Bogey Walk', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Titania', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Let me Whisper', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Lancers: 'Arcadians', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Dreaming', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
'Highland Schottische', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Daybreak', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Sonia', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Lancers: 'Quaker Girl', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Nydia', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
One-Step: 'Tortoise Patrol', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Fledermaus', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Mugetta', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Valse: 'Valse D'Avril', (Corelli Windeatt's Band),
Two-Step: 'Ye Bigge Snakes', (Corelli Windeatt's Band) |
| Royal Presence | HI and RH The German Crown Prince,
HI and RH The German Crown Princess,
HIH The Hereditary Prince Youssouf Izzedin Effendi of Turkey, and Major Tyrrell,
HI and RH The Archduke Charles Francis Jospeh,
HRH The Duke of d'Aosta of Italy,
HRH The Duchess of d'Aosta of Italy,
HIH The Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovitch of Russia,
HRH The Infante Do Fernando of Spain,
HIH The Prince Higashi-Fushimi of Japan,
HIH The Princess Higashi-Fushimi of Japan,
HRH The Crown Prince of Greece,
HRH The Crown Princess of Greece,
HRH The Crown Prince of Roumania,
HRH The Crown Princess of Roumania,
HRH The Hereditary Prince Alexander of Servia,
HRH The Crown Prince of Denmark,
HRH The Crown Prince of Sweden,
HRH The Crown Princess of Sweden,
HRH Prince Boris of Tyrnova, Crown Prince of Bulgaria,
HRH The Hereditary Prince Danilo of Montenegro,
HRH The Princess Miliza of Montenegro,
HRH Prince Chakrabhongs of Pitsanulok, Heir Presumptive of Siam,
HRH The Grand Duke of Hesse,
HRH The Grand Duchess of Hesse,
HRH The Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin,
HRH The Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin,
The Hon. John Hays Hammond (Ambassador of the United States of America),
Vice-Admiral Faques de Jonquires (Representative of the French Republic),
HRH The Duke of Connaught,
HRH Princess Louise (Duchess of Argyll),
HRH Princess Henry of Battenberg,
HI and RH The Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg,
HRH The Duchess of Connaught
HRH The Duchess of Albany,
HRH Prince Henry of Prussia,
HRH The Hereditary Princess of Saxe-Meiningen,
HRH Princess Frederick Charles of Hesse,
HRH Prince Arthur of Connaught,
HRH Princess Victoria Patricia of Connaught,
HRH Princess Alexander of Teck,
HRH Prince Alexander of Teck,
HRH The Duke Albrecht of Wartemberg,
HRH Prince Rupert of Bavaria,
HRH Prince John George of Saxony,
HRH Princess John George of Saxony,
HRH The Duke of Saxe-Coburg
HRH The Duchess of Saxe-Coburg,
HRH Prince Henry of the Netherlands,
HRH Prince George of Greece,
HRH Prince George of Greece
HRH Princess George of Greece,
HRH The Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz,
HRH Duke George William of Brunswick-Luneburg,
HRH Duke Ernest Augustus of Brunswick-Luneburg,
HRH Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg,
His Grand Ducal Highness Maximilian of Baden,
HRH Princess Mavimilian of Baden,
HRH Princes Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein,
HRH Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein,
HRH Duke Ernst Gunther of Schleswig-Holstein,
HRH Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse,
HRH Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg,
HRH Prince Alexander of Battenberg,
HRH Prince Maurice of Battenberg,
SH The Duke of Teck,
SH The Duchess of Teck,
HH Prince Mohamed Ali Pasha of Eygpt,
HSH The Hereditary Prince of Monaco,
HSH Louise of Battenberg,
HSH Prince George of Battenberg,
HRH The Duke of Argyll |
| Performance Notes | This event was originally planned for 27 June 1910 but was postponed on account of the death of King Edward VII on 6 May 1910.
The event had two prep days and the decorative scheme was designed by architect Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens. The organisation of the event was by Mr G Sherwood Foster, secretary of the Chelsea Arts Club. Tickets could only be obtained from the 200 women making up the ball committee chaired by Mrs George Cornwallis West.
The Ball preceded the Coronation of King George V and Queen Mary by two days and therefore practically the whole of the distinguished Coronation guests attended. Guests arrived at the Hall following a state banquet at Buckingham Palace.
Many crowned Princes and Princesses of Europe, Grand Dukes and Eastern rulers, Prime Minister Asquith and Home Secretary Winston Churchill were present amongst the 3,000 who attended. Other notable guests included the actress Ellen Terry, writer Somerset Maughan, Viscountess Curzon, Mrs J J Astor, the Duchess of Westminster, and the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough.
Guests dressed as dukes, cardinals, explorers, courtiers, ambassadors, peers, maids of honour, and other characters from Shakespeare's dramas and the Elizabethan period - in all 28 plays were represented by the different groups of guests. A number of the guests were direct descendants of the persons who they were impersonating, they included Howards, Talbots, Cecils, Burghley's, Fortescue, Lytteltons, Hamiltons and Comptons. Mrs Arthur James, dressed as Queen Elizabeth I.
The Ball was to fundraise for the creation of a great national memorial theatre to William Shakespeare, and was the idea of Mrs George Cornwallis West.
The Hall was transformed - yew trees stood before the Loggia boxes, while the Grand Tier had green curtains and vine clad bowers. The Second tier was decorated as a stone colonnade with columns and vases and the balcony was now a sloping grass lawn with flower beds. The gallery was the supper buffet area where cypress trees rose up to a gauzy blue canopy that covered the roof. Special boxes were built for the night over the orchestra stalls and in front of the great organ.
After dancing there were tableaux representing scenes from Shakespeare's plays with nobility in costume.
"The Shakespeare Ball of King George's Coronation year will live in history. It will rank with the Eglinton Tournament and the most famous masques of earlier ages..Those who were fortunate enough to see it have something to recollect all their lives. For splendour, for beauty, for perfection of harmonious colouring, for brilliance of general effect, nothing to compare with it has been seen in our time. For a few all-too-brief hours the magnificence of Tudor England was revived. Here were no tawdry stage costumes, no mere imitations of reality. Here was a real thing...Never has any entertainment brought together such value in dresses, not a more enchanting array of exquisite women. Never has the effect of a fancy dress ball, taken as a whole, been more wonderful of more complete"
(Dominion, June 1911)
"The Hall had been so decorated that it might have formed the setting for many of the sunnier episodes of Shakespeare's plays. The open air scenes from Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing were recalled to the mind as one entered the hall, and stood in a Tudor garden in the Italian style. The Stalls were submerged under 16,000 square feet of Dance floor. The Loggia boxes had resigned their natural elevation and were on the floor level, very like the lowest tier at Covent Garden. The organ and orchestra seats had been banished from sight, and the three tiers of boxes had been extended to make almost a complete circle of the building. The hall had been converted into a sort of covered-in-Coliseum on a small scale, with its arena encircled by tier upon tier of boxes and balconies.
The line of loggia boxes was faced with yews clipped by a fantastic hand into a variety of designs. The grand tier was a series of vine clad bowers, with bunches of grapes coyly hanging just out of reach. The second tier resembled a stone colonnade, the arching of the boxes being broken at intervals by quaint vases and columns. Above the three lines of boxes, the balcony looked like a sloping green lawn backed by flower beds. The Gallery pillars were hidden by a grove of cypress trees which rose majestically into a cloudless sky. This 'sky' was a very ingenious affair, formed of a gauzy blue fabric which was stretched from the sides of to the middle of the ceiling. It hung in symmetrical folds, and the illusion of a brilliant Summer day was conveyed when the blaze of a thousand lights was flooded upon it."
(The Times, 21 June 1911)
"BRILLIANT SCENES.
It woudl be impossible to imagine anything more Shakesperian even in the Albert Hall than the ball which opened last night in aid of the fund for a National Theatre in memory of Shakespeare. The balcony was covered with green cloth to represent a Tudor garden, and beneath the grand tier were arbours of clipped yew forming figures of birds. Cypresses arose from the top gallery. On the floor of the vast hall Queen Elizabeth was enthroned, and the characters of twenty-three Shakespeare plays were dancing quadrilles in front of her, as also were Amazons, lovers, and Tudor duchesses...
The hall was really a gorgeous sight. One uses the phrase often, but here one really understood the meaning of it."
(The Manchester Guardian, 21 June 1911)
The event ended at 05:00 on 21 June 1911. |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1911/4),
Dance Card and Pencil (RAHE/1/1911/4a),
Ephemera - Souvenir Book (RAHE/8/2/2),
Handbill (RAHE/6/1911/1) |