William Shakespeare

The Family Shakespeare, Volume Two, the Tragedies, by Thomas Bowdler: the Family Shakespeare in Three Volumes in Which Nothing is Added to the ... with Propriety Be Read Aloud in a Family William Shakespeare

The Family Shakespeare is one of the most famous works ever written. There is even a word introduced by it into the English language: "Bowdlerized". The American Heritage Dictionary defines bowdlerize as: "To remove material that is considered offensive or objectionable from (a book, for example)". The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines bowdlerize to mean: 1. to expurgate (as a book) by omitting or modifying parts considered vulgar 2. to modify by abridging, simplifying, or distorting in style or content Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825) was a recognized authority on Shakespeare. He was also a recognized chess player who contested several chess matches against François-André Danican Philidor (1726-1795), who was considered to be the strongest chess player in the world at that time and is now regarded as having been the first unofficial world chess champion. Basically, the author or really the editor Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825) went through all 36 recognized plays by William Shakespeare and cut out all the dirty or scary parts, so as to make them suitable to be read to children. The book was enormously successful at first, going through several printings. However, eventually, the book was subjected to calumny and ridicule, precisely because it cut out all the scary or controversial parts. Bowdler's name has since became associated with censorship of literature, motion pictures and television programs. For example, in Hamlet, when Ophelia is believed to have committed suicide, in the Bowdlerized version, she clearly drowns by accident. In the opening scene of Othello is the following line: "I am one Sir, that come to tell you, your Daughter, and the Moore, are now making the Beast with two backs." This sounds like they are doing something dirty (and who knows what it was that they were doing), so Bowdler re-wrote this line to say: "I am one that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now together." See Volume 2 Page 342 Actually, this change was not so bad. One wonders what the fuss was all about. Indeed, most of the editorial changes by Thomas Bowdler were not so radical as has been commonly supposed. In many ways, they improve upon the work of Shakespeare by making his words easier to understand by the modern reader.