"Everybody took Notice of the Scene of the Drawing-room": Performing Emotions at the Early Georgian Court, 1714-60

This article interrogates the court's reputation as ‘the residence of dullness’ to reveal a multivalent emotional space with a practised grammar of emotional concealment and display. The performance of emotions by the royal family and courtiers in the State Apartments acted as a powerful draw to court events, as the display of joy or cheer acquired national significance. Under such scrutiny the king and his courtiers routinely limited displays of grief or pain to more restricted spaces such as the closet. The article analyses the court as a unique micro-community in order to recreate the emotional character of London's palaces