Thomas Bowdler
Encyclopedia
Thomas Bowdler was an English physician
who published an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare
's work, edited by his sister Harriet
, intended to be more appropriate for 19th century women and children than the original.
He similarly published an edited version of Edward Gibbon
's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. His edition was the subject of some criticism and ridicule and, through the eponym
bowdlerise (or bowdlerize), his name is now associated with censorship
of literature, motion pictures and television programmes.
, where he took his degree in 1776, but did not practice, devoting himself instead to the cause of prison reform
. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May, 1781.
He was a strong chess
player and once played eight recorded games against the best chess player of the time, François-André Danican Philidor
, who was confident enough of his superiority to Bowdler that he played with handicaps
. Bowdler won twice, lost three times, and drew
three times; Philidor was usually blindfolded and playing multiple opponents simultaneously, and sometimes started without one pawn. The first recorded game to feature a double rook
sacrifice
was played between Bowdler (white) and H. Conway
at London in 1788.
In 1818, after retiring to the Isle of Wight
, he published his Family Shakespeare, which had considerable success. He subsequently attempted to do the same with the works of historian Edward Gibbon
, a project which was not as successful. Bowdler's edition of Gibbon's work was published posthumously in 1826. His sister Jane
was a poet and essayist, and his sister Harriet was the editor of Bowdler's publications.
He later settled in south Wales, where he died, and is buried at Oystermouth
in Swansea
. His large library
, consisting of (unexpurgated) volumes collected by his ancestors Thomas Bowdler (1638–1700) and Thomas Bowdler (1661–1738), was donated to the University of Wales, Lampeter
.
In 1807, the first edition of the Family Shakespeare was published, in four duodecimo
volumes, containing 24 of the plays. In 1818 the second edition was published, now titled The Family Shakespeare, in Ten Volumes; in which nothing is added to the original text; but those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family. Each play is preceded by an introduction where Bowdler summarises and justifies his changes to the text. The editions were actually edited by Bowdler's sister, Harriet, rather than by Thomas. However, they were published under Thomas Bowdler's name, because a woman could not publicly admit that she understood Shakespeare's racy passages. By 1850, eleven editions had been printed.
Bowdler was not the first to undertake such a project, and despite being considered a negative example, his efforts made it more societally acceptable to teach Shakespeare to new audiences. The poet Algernon Charles Swinburne
said, "More nauseous and foolish cant was never chattered than that which would deride the memory or depreciate the merits of Bowdler. No man ever did better service to Shakespeare than the man who made it possible to put him into the hands of intelligent and imaginative children."
Bowdler's commitment not to augment Shakespeare's text was in contrast to many earlier editors and performers. Nahum Tate
as Poet Laureate
had rewritten the tragedy
of King Lear
with a happy ending
. In 1807, Charles Lamb and his sister Mary
published Tales from Shakespeare
specifically for children, with synopses of 20 of the plays, but seldom quoting the original text directly.
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
who published an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's work, edited by his sister Harriet
Henrietta Maria Bowdler
Henrietta Maria Bowdler , commonly called Mrs. Harriet Bowdler, was an author and expurgator.-Life and works:Bowdler was the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler, and sister of John Bowdler the elder and Thomas Bowdler the elder...
, intended to be more appropriate for 19th century women and children than the original.
He similarly published an edited version of Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament...
's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. His edition was the subject of some criticism and ridicule and, through the eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
bowdlerise (or bowdlerize), his name is now associated with censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
of literature, motion pictures and television programmes.
Biography
Bowdler was born near Bath, the son of a gentleman of independent means. He studied medicine at St. Andrews and at EdinburghUniversity of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
, where he took his degree in 1776, but did not practice, devoting himself instead to the cause of prison reform
Prison reform
Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, aiming at a more effective penal system.-History:Prisons have only been used as the primary punishment for criminal acts in the last couple of centuries...
. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May, 1781.
He was a strong chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
player and once played eight recorded games against the best chess player of the time, François-André Danican Philidor
François-André Danican Philidor
François-André Danican Philidor , often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the opéra comique...
, who was confident enough of his superiority to Bowdler that he played with handicaps
Chess handicap
A handicap in chess is a way to enable a weaker player to have a chance of winning against a stronger one. There are many kinds of such handicaps, such as material odds, extra moves A handicap (or "odds") in chess is a way to enable a weaker player to have a chance of winning against a stronger...
. Bowdler won twice, lost three times, and drew
Draw (chess)
In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...
three times; Philidor was usually blindfolded and playing multiple opponents simultaneously, and sometimes started without one pawn. The first recorded game to feature a double rook
Rook (chess)
A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...
sacrifice
Sacrifice (chess)
In chess, a sacrifice is a move giving up a piece in the hopes of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value....
was played between Bowdler (white) and H. Conway
Henry Seymour Conway
Field Marshal Henry Seymour Conway was a British general and statesman. A brother of the 1st Marquess of Hertford, and cousin of Horace Walpole, he began his military career in the War of the Austrian Succession and eventually rose to the rank of Field Marshal .-Family and education:Conway was...
at London in 1788.
In 1818, after retiring to the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
, he published his Family Shakespeare, which had considerable success. He subsequently attempted to do the same with the works of historian Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament...
, a project which was not as successful. Bowdler's edition of Gibbon's work was published posthumously in 1826. His sister Jane
Jane Bowdler
Jane Bowdler was a poet and essayist-Family:Jane was the eldest daughter of Thomas Bowdler of Bath, Somerset and his wife Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler, née Cotton , a religious writer...
was a poet and essayist, and his sister Harriet was the editor of Bowdler's publications.
He later settled in south Wales, where he died, and is buried at Oystermouth
Oystermouth
Oystermouth is an electoral ward and a village in the Mumbles community and also the City and County of Swansea, Wales...
in Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
. His large library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
, consisting of (unexpurgated) volumes collected by his ancestors Thomas Bowdler (1638–1700) and Thomas Bowdler (1661–1738), was donated to the University of Wales, Lampeter
University of Wales, Lampeter
University of Wales, Lampeter is a university in Lampeter, Wales. Founded in 1822 by royal charter, it is the oldest degree awarding institution in Wales and may be the third oldest in England and Wales after Oxford and Cambridge...
.
The Family Shakespeare
In 19th-century households, a popular family pastime was reading aloud from the Bible, the classics or major works of English literature. In Bowdler's childhood, his father had entertained his family with dramatic readings of extracts from Shakespeare. Later, Bowdler realised his father had been extemporaneously omitting or altering passages he felt unsuitable for the ears of his wife and children. Bowdler felt it would be worthwhile to present an edition which might be used in a family whose father was not a sufficiently "circumspect and judicious reader" to accomplish this expurgation himself.In 1807, the first edition of the Family Shakespeare was published, in four duodecimo
Book size
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...
volumes, containing 24 of the plays. In 1818 the second edition was published, now titled The Family Shakespeare, in Ten Volumes; in which nothing is added to the original text; but those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family. Each play is preceded by an introduction where Bowdler summarises and justifies his changes to the text. The editions were actually edited by Bowdler's sister, Harriet, rather than by Thomas. However, they were published under Thomas Bowdler's name, because a woman could not publicly admit that she understood Shakespeare's racy passages. By 1850, eleven editions had been printed.
Bowdler was not the first to undertake such a project, and despite being considered a negative example, his efforts made it more societally acceptable to teach Shakespeare to new audiences. The poet Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...
said, "More nauseous and foolish cant was never chattered than that which would deride the memory or depreciate the merits of Bowdler. No man ever did better service to Shakespeare than the man who made it possible to put him into the hands of intelligent and imaginative children."
Bowdler's commitment not to augment Shakespeare's text was in contrast to many earlier editors and performers. Nahum Tate
Nahum Tate
Nahum Tate was an Irish poet, hymnist, and lyricist, who became England's poet laureate in 1692.-Life:Nahum Teate came from a family of Puritan clergymen...
as Poet Laureate
Poet Laureate
A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...
had rewritten the tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
of King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
with a happy ending
Happy ending
A happy ending is an ending of the plot of a work of fiction in which almost everything turns out for the best for the protagonists, their sidekicks, and almost everyone except the villains....
. In 1807, Charles Lamb and his sister Mary
Mary Lamb
Mary Ann Lamb , was an English writer, the sister and collaborator of Charles Lamb.-Biography:She was born on 3 December 1764. In 1796, Mary, who had suffered a breakdown from the strain of caring for her family, killed her mother with a kitchen knife, and from then on had to be kept under constant...
published Tales from Shakespeare
Tales from Shakespeare
Tales from Shakespeare was an English children's book written by Charles Lamb with his sister Mary Lamb in 1807. It was illustrated by Arthur Rackham in 1899 and 1909....
specifically for children, with synopses of 20 of the plays, but seldom quoting the original text directly.
Changes to Shakespeare
Some examples of alterations made by Bowdler's edition:- In HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, the death of Ophelia was referred to as an accidental drowningDrowningDrowning is death from asphyxia due to suffocation caused by water entering the lungs and preventing the absorption of oxygen leading to cerebral hypoxia....
, omitting the suggestions that she may have intended suicide. - In MacbethMacbethThe Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
, Lady Macbeth's famous cry "Out, damned spot!" was changed to "Out, crimson spot!" - "God!" as an exclamation is replaced with "Heavens!"
- In Henry IV, Part 2Henry IV, Part 2Henry IV, Part 2 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed written between 1596 and 1599. It is the third part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1 and succeeded by Henry V.-Sources:...
, the prostitute Doll Tearsheet is omitted entirely; the slightly more reputable Mistress Quickly is retained.
Popular culture
- In "Thomas PynchonThomas PynchonThomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
's The Crying of Lot 49The Crying of Lot 49The Crying of Lot 49 is a novel by Thomas Pynchon, first published in 1966. The shortest of Pynchon's novels, it is about a woman, Oedipa Maas, possibly unearthing the centuries-old conflict between two mail distribution companies, Thurn und Taxis and the Trystero...
chapter six Emory Bortz says, "I've been pirated, me and Wharfinger, we've been Bowdlerized in reverse or something." - In the Moral OrelMoral OrelMoral Orel is an American stop-motion animated television show, which originally aired on Adult Swim from December 13, 2005 to December 18, 2008...
television program, Moralton's town library is named the Thomas Bowdler Library; most of the library's books are censored (Episode 2, "God's Greatest Gift") - In the Thursday NextThursday NextThursday Next is the main protagonist in a series of comic fantasy, alternate history novels by the British author Jasper Fforde. She was first introduced in Fforde's first published novel, The Eyre Affair, released on July 19, 2001 by Hodder & Stoughton. , the series comprises six books, in two...
novels by Jasper FfordeJasper FfordeJasper Fforde is a British novelist. Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published in 2001. Fforde is mainly known for his Thursday Next novels, although he has written several books in the loosely connected Nursery Crime series and begun two more independent series: The Last Dragonslayer...
, the Jurisfiction police who monitor the textual integrity of all books written and unwritten are constantly battling the Bowdlerisers, who attempt to erase material that they find offensive. - In Act II of Gilbert and SullivanGilbert and SullivanGilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's 1884 comic operaComic operaComic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
Princess IdaPrincess IdaPrincess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
, Lady Psyche suggests that students at a women's university who wish to study the classics should get their editions "Bowdlerised".
Books
- The Family Shakespeare, Volume One, The Comedies, ISBN 0-923891-95-1
- The Family Shakespeare, Volume Two, The Tragedies, ISBN 0-923891-98-6
- The Family Shakespeare, Volume Three, The Histories, ISBN 0-923891-99-4
- The Family Shakspeare, in which nothing is added to the original text; but those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family by Thomas Bowdler in 10 volumes, Facsimile reprint of 2nd edition, revised, in 1820, Eureka Press, 2009. ISBN 978-4-902454-16-1
See also
- Ad usum DelphiniAd usum DelphiniAd usum Delphini means “for the use of the Dauphin”. It is a collection of classical Greek and Latin texts used by the Duke of Montausier for his education of the Grand Dauphin, son of King Louis XIV. This text was on the cover of the traditional texts which had been purified because they were too...
- List of chess games (Bowdler, 1788)