Madame Dagueville's Last Performances

Medea and Jason [1] Thursday 26 August 1784

Almost all of the theatre advertisements from the eighteenth century omit forenames. Consequently we can't be sure of the identity of the Madame Dagueville  who danced in the role of Medea. In this pantomime there would have been a transformation scene in which the characters of Greek mythology were transformed into the Harlequinade. Mother Shipton is said to have ultimately developed into the pantomime dame.

If the dancing master with his practice in Ipswich is d'Egville senior then he must have married at least twice. Mr Dagueville refers to himself as former principal dancer at the Opera House in some of his local advertising material. His wife died in childbirth on Monday 10 May 1779. We know that d'Egville senior continued to be active in London but this doesn't necessarily mean that the two men aren't one individual. Dagueville of Ipswich had a business partner who could have taken over his pupils when he was in town.

The Essex Chronicle 14 May 1779
The British Library Board

Its implausible that the Madame Dagueville who danced in the role of Medea is Catherine Berry (wife of James Harvey d'Egville) as they didn't marry until 1792. Neither can she have been either of Peter's known daughters. Madame Dagueville disappears from the advertisements in the latter half of the seventeen-nineties.

[1] Willaim Van Lennep, The London Stage, 1660-1800 Part 5, 1776-1800: A Calendar of Plays, Entertainment & Afterpieces Together with Casts, Box-Reciepts and Contemporary Comment (SIU Press, 1970)

Duke Of Cambridge Assaulted By Dancing Master

With the disproportionate attention devoted to the red top press in the news, despite famine and financial crisis, I thought I might indulge in my breakfast pastime of inventing headlines for historic events.

The Duke of Cambridge in this instance is not William Windsor but Prince George Duke of Cambridge (1819-1904), grandson of George III. His Uncle, William IV, and his consort Queen Adelaide made the Royal Pavilion at Brighton an autumn and winter residence and inherited Madame Michau as Mistress of Ceremonies.

Prince George, Duke of Cambridge
Wikimedia

During the occupation of the Royal abode by "William and Adelaide,—when it received the name of The Palace,—it was a continued scene of regal festivities, juvenile parties being very frequent. The present Duke, then Prince George of Cambridge, was a great favourite with Their Majesties, who specially humoured his fancies and frolics. Royalty, however, is very tenacious of its dignity; whereof the following is a proof: Upon occasions when the youthful aristocracy were invited to the Palace, it was invariably usual for the arrangements of the evening to be under the immediate superintendence of the celebrated maitresse de dause, Madame Michau, who, not unfrequently, was assisted in her duties by her son, now well-known as Mons. James Michau, and the arrangement graciously received the Royal sanction. With the Prince and his youthful associates the son of the dancing mistress was considered fair game for their sporting humour; they therefore resorted to practical joking upon him, well-knowing that difference in position forbad his making a retort. But it happened upon one occasion that either the Prince exceeded his usual indignities, or that young Michau was not in a philosophic placid temper, as he offered a remonstrance, which excited a blow from His Royal Highness, resulting in a bout of fisticuffs, from which the Prince came off second best. The indignity, thus justly administered, was forthwith resented, the Royal communication, through Mr. Gee, Her Majesty's page, being that Madame Michau's services would not again be required. A retributive incident shortly after occurred that entirely put an end to the Palace youthful gatherings. Prince George, for a diversion, had purchased a mechanical mouse, and, having wound it up, he placed it upon the floor, when it chanced to travel in the direction of the Queen. Her Majesty had not observed the toy until it closely approached her, when, feeling a sudden alarm, she rose hurriedly, uttering an ejaculation of fear, a procedure so undignifying to her exalted position that she immediately retired, and no other juvenile party at the Palace ever after took place.

History of Brighthelmstone or Brighton as I view it and others knew it

John Ackerson Erredge

Brighton: E. Lewis 1862

Tarantism

Tarantella 1850, signed T.M.R.

Gill has commented on the posting Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin and suggested that the Mme or Mlle Degville is identified as Sophie d'Egville, daughter of Pierre d'Agueville and Sophia Anselme. I hadn't eliminated Sophie from being identified as this woman; it is rather that Sophie or Sophia has left a confusing trail.

In 1797 Sophia was dancing at Drury Lane with George and Fanny where all were payed at the same rate of £2. One source gives the year of 1793 for Sophia's birth and while children younger than five years old appeared on stage it is likely that she would have been identified as 'infant d'Egville' rather than appearing on the roll and payed in her own right.

I have always assumed this woman is Madame Michau who died in 1859. Her age is given as seventy six in a death notice which would push her birth date back to 1783. A Sophie d'Egville was performing at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin from at least as early as November 1803 which is more plausible if she and Madame Michau are the same person.

One source states that Louis Francois Bonaventure Michau was born about 1801 in France but this is far too late. The Life and Adventures George Augustus Sala Written By Himself (1895) provides a brief sketch of Madame Michau,

Her first husband had been a M. Bizet, originally one of the private secretaries of Napoleon the Great; and at his death she married a French gentleman named Michau, who was especially distinguished for his highly cultivated gastronomic taste and his skilled culinary capacity. Indeed, in addition to his connection with the Terpsichorean art, he was a cook of the first water.

In the 1841 Census an Augustus Michau born circa 1811 is a resident of Brighton. We know that Sophie Degville is in Paris at this time and Augustus' father could be either of her two husbands.
This supports an explanation of why Sophie Degville remains settled in France during the Napoleonic Wars. I do not yet know when she returned to England but by 1820 Madame Michau was a practicing dance teacher in London and was promoting herself to the Court.

Sophie went on to publish a book on deportment and is still remembered for her form of the Tarantella,

Dance masters and manuals gave instruction as to how to perform these dances in the correct way, removing them from the streets and popular festivals into the indoor arena of palaces and ballrooms. One example of the notation of the tarantella in this way was by the dance teacher Madame Michau, born as Sophie D'Egville into a dynasty of dance instructors. Her version of the tarantella was seen in London in 1844 and published in 1860, and became the established form of the dance.

Ritual, Rapture and Remorse: A study of tarantism and pizzica in Salento

by Jerri Dabo 2010 

The Tarantella when danced solo was a supposed therapy for a spider bite and could last for hours or even days. It has even been suggested that the origins of the dance lie in Bacchanalian rites. This seems to resonate more with Sophia's voluptuous dance of great energy of expression in 1805 and her life which at that time seems distant from being mistress of ceremonies at the court.