The Bowdler Shakespeare: In Six 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

William Shakespeare

The Bowdler Shakespeare: In Six 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
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Country
United Kingdom
Published
20 July 2009
Pages
516
ISBN
9781108001137

The Bowdler Shakespeare: In Six 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

William Shakespeare

‘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), who devoted his time to prison reform and chess, as well as the sanitising of Shakespeare. The Bowdlers’ work became enormously popular as the scandal-ridden Regency gave way to Victorian respectability. This volume, from the 1853 edition, contains Titus Andronicus, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Othello.

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