page_title: Anacreontic Society
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Anacreontic Society / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Depiction of the Crown and Anchor tavern, The Strand, London from the 18th century
context_page_description: The Anacreontic Society was a popular gentlemen's club of amateur musicians in London founded in the mid-18th century. These barristers, doctors, and other professional men named their club after the Greek court poet Anacreon, who lived in the 6th century B.C. and whose poems, "anacreontics", were used to entertain patrons in Teos and Athens. Dubbed "the convivial bard of Greece", Anacreon's songs often celebrated women, wine, and entertaining.
  While the society's membership, one observer noted, was dedicated to "wit, harmony, and the god of wine", their primary goal was to promote an interest in music. The society presented regular concerts of music, and included among their guests such important musicians as Joseph Haydn, who was the special guest at their concert in January 1791.
  There is also evidence of an Anacreontic Society having existed at St Andrews University in the late 18th century in much the same vein as the Anacreontic Society of London. However, due to the club's informal nature, detailed accounts of the group are sparse.
context_section_description: According to an anonymous "History of the Anacreontic Society" published in 1780, the Society was founded "about the year 1766" by one Jack Smith.  
  The Society initially met in various taverns, and then moved to the London Coffee House on Ludgate Hill. It subsequently relocated to the Crown and Anchor tavern in The Strand in order to accommodate an expansion in its membership from 25 to 40.  Its membership later increased to 80.
  A musical high-point of the society occurred in January 1791, when Haydn attended a meeting at which the twelve-year-old Johann Hummel performed, "astonish[ing] the company with a most admirable performance of a favourite English ballet, with variations, on the harpsichord".
  The Society came to an end after the Duchess of Devonshire attended one of its meetings.  Because "some of the comic songs [were not] exactly calculated for the entertainment of ladies, the singers were restrained; which displeasing many of the members, they resigned one after another; and a general meeting being called, the society was dissolved."  It is not clear exactly when this incident occurred, but in October 1792 it was reported that "The Anacreontick Society meets no more; it has long been struggling with symptoms of internal decay".
caption: The Crown and Anchor tavern, where the Society met from the late 1770s, is visible on the right.  The Church on the left is St Clement Danes.
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