‘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 in a family.’ These words on the title pages of this edition gave rise to the verb ‘to bowdlerise’ - to remove or modify text considered vulgar or objectionable. Although the first edition was in fact created by Henrietta Maria Bowdler (1750-1830) and published in 1807, the many subsequent editions were published under the name of her brother Thomas (1754-1825), whose other enthusiasms were prison reform and chess. The Bowdlers’ work became enormously popular as the scandal-ridden Regency gave way to Victorian respectability. This volume, from the 1853 edition, contains Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, All’s Well that Ends Well, The Taming of the Shrew, The Winter’s Tale and The Comedy of Errors.