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Thomas Bowdler
 (1754 - 1825)

From the pen of Thomas Bowdler:

“I acknowledge Shakespeare to be the world's greatest dramatic poet, but regret that no parent could place the uncorrected book in the hands of his daughter, and therefore I have prepared the Family Shakespeare”

"Many words and expressions occur which are of so indecent a nature as to render it highly desirable that they should be erased."

'"If any word or expression is of such a nature that the first impression it excites is an impression of obscenity, that word ought not to be spoken nor written or printed ; and, if printed, it ought to be erased."

No collection of Shakespeare's editors would be complete without adding a word about perhaps his most popular editor, certainly the best known, Thomas Bowdler (1754 - 1825), editor of The Family Shakespeare.

"The Family Shakespeare" was first printed in four-volumes in 1807 (which edition covered 24 plays and was written by Thomas Bowdler's sister Henrietta but attributed to Thomas until the twentieth century)  The Family Shakespeare was very popular and went through many printings in the nineteenth century.  The first edition edited directly by Thomas Bowdler was the 1818 edition, which included all the then canonical plays except Pericles, and none of the non-dramatic poetry.  It was based on the Stevens text.  The fourth edition appeared in 1825 (see below) and there were subsequent editions in 1831, 1853 and 1861, not counting reprints of previous editions. It is famous as an "expurgated" Shakespeare, "in which nothing is added to the original; but those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read in a family."  The word "bowderlize" was invented in 1836 carrying a pejorative sense, meaning to edit out offensive content prudishly.  I have been able to locate and link the following full-view editions of The Family Shakespeare:

  • The second edition of 1818 (Google Book Search):
    • Vol. I - The Tempest; Two Gentlemen of Verona; Merry Wives of Windsor; Twelfth Night
    • Vol. II - Measure for Measure; Much Ado About Nothing; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Love's Labour's Lost;
    • Vol. III - The Merchant of Venice; As You Like It; All's Well That Ends Well; The Taming of the Shrew
    • Vol. IV - The Winter's Tale; The Comedy of Errors; Macbeth; King John
    • Vol. V - Richard II; Henry IV Part 1; Henry IV Part 2; Henry V (Note:  Unfortunately GB does not have a full-view entry for this volume.  Use the 1825 edition entry below for the texts).
    • Vol. VI - Henry VI, Part 1; Part 2; Part 3
    • Vol. VII - Richard III; Henry VIII; Troilus and Cressida
    • Vol. VIII - Timon of Athens; Coriolanus; Julius Caesar; Antony and Cleopatra
    • Vol. IX - Cymbeline; Titus Andronicus; King Lear
    • Vol. X - Romeo and Juliet; Hamlet; Othello
  • The fourth edition of 1825 (Google Book Search - this edition maintains the same order of works as the 1818 edition):
  • A single-volume edition of 1843 (Google Book Search).
  • A single-volume edition of 1847 (Internet Archive)

Biographical extract from the Wikipedia article on Thomas Bowdler:

Bowdler was born near Bath, the son of a gentleman of independent means, and studied medicine at St. Andrews and at Edinburgh, where he took his degree in 1776, but did not practice, devoting himself instead to the cause of prison reform.

He was a strong chess player for his day, and played eight recorded games against the best chess player of the time, François-André Danican Philidor [1], 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.[2]

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.

He later settled in south Wales, where he died, and is buried at Oystermouth in Swansea. His large library, consisting of volumes collected by his ancestors Thomas Bowdler (1638–1700) and Thomas Bowdler (1661–1738), was donated to the University of Wales, Lampeter.

Example "bowdlerizations" of the texts:

  • Ophelia's death in Hamlet is referred to as an accidental drowning, not a possible suicide.
  • Lady Macbeth's "Out, Damned spot." is changed to "Out, Crimson spot."
  • Doll Tearsheet is completely written out of Henry IV, Part 1.
  • Mercutio's "the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon”  is changed to "the hand of the dial is now upon the point of noon"
  • Juliet's "Spread thy close curtain, love performing night" is changed to ". . . and come civil night".

And so on...

It is not commonly known that Bowdler also prepared "family" editions of parts of the Old Testament and of Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, completing this edition just before his death in 1825.

Bowdler explains himself:

In a foot note to page xviii of the fourth edition of The Family Shakespeare, Bowdler explains how he came upon the idea of an expurgated text:

My first idea of the Family Shakspeare arose from the recollection of my father's custom of reading in this manner to his family. Shakspeare (with whom no person was better acquainted) was a frequent subject of the evening's entertainment. In the perfection of reading few men were equal to my father; and such was his good taste, his delicacy, and his prompt discretion, that his family listened with delight to Lear? Hamlet, and Othello, without knowing that those matchless tragedies contained words and expressions improper to be pronounced; and without having reason to suspect that any parts of the plays had been omitted by the circumspect and judicious reader.

It afterwards occurred to me, that what my father did so readily and successfully for his family, my inferior abilities might, with the assistance of time and mature consideration, be able to accomplish for the benefit of the public. I say, therefore, that if " The Family Shakspeare" is entitled to any merit, it originates with my father.

The debate over Bowdlerism

Not everyone agrees that Bowdlerism is a bad thing, and if we are honest, we must agree that we have our own acceptable standards of censorship where pornography, hate literature, racist literature, and the sensibilities of children intersect.  Surprisingly enough no less a critic than Swinburne takes up the cause of the much maligned Bowdler.  In "Social Verse" (1894) he says "More nauseous and more 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 ; it may well be, if we consider how dearly the creator of Mamillius must have loved them, that no man has ever done him such good service" (p. 98).

It can't be the censorship alone to which we object.  Shakespeare is censored every day by the most eminent directors as they cut his lines to fit their conceptions.  It is, perhaps, the sense of dishonesty.  The changing of that which was intended, even though the intention does not fit our standards.  It is instructional, if nothing else, to realize that some very serious, liberal minded people are not dismissive of Bowdler's edits.

By/About Thomas Bowdler
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©1995-2008 Terry A. Gray
Last modified 01/07/08
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