THE HYPOCRITICAL WHACKO CONSERVATIVES’ BANNING OF BOOKS got me thinking of Thomas Bowdler, whence the term “bowdlerize,” to expurgate; loosely, “to clean up.” That is, it’s ok for Trump to personify obscenity (Madison Square Garden was “a love fest”?? So was January 6??), but God forbid Judy Blume should describe puberty, menstruation, and teen sexuality in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Here are tidbits about Thomas Bowdler and The Family Shakspeare, first published in 1807. (No typo here; the other “e” was to become generally accepted in time.)
Thomas Bowdler LRCP FRS 1754–1825, English physician known for publishing The Family Shakespeare, an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare‘s plays edited by his sister Henrietta Maria Bowdler. Image from Here Be Dragons Wiki.
A Well-Born Bowdler. Wikipedia notes, “Thomas Bowdler was born on 11 July 1754, in Box, near Bath, Somerset, the youngest son of the six children of Thomas Bowdler (c. 1719–1785), a banker of substantial fortune, and his wife, Elizabeth, née Cotton (d. 1797), the daughter of Sir John Cotton, 6th Baronet of Conington, Huntingdonshire.”
A Less-Than-Successful Physician. Wikipedia describes, “Bowdler studied medicine at the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh, where he received his degree in 1776, graduating with a thesis on intermittent fevers. He then spent four years travelling in continental Europe, visiting the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, Italy, Sicily and Portugal. In 1781 he caught a fever in Lisbon from a young friend whom he was attending through a fatal illness. He returned to England in broken health and with a strong aversion to the medical profession.”
A “Bolderizing” Father. “In Bowdler’s childhood,” Wikipedia recounts, “his father had entertained his family with readings from Shakespeare. Later in life, Bowdler realised his father had been omitting or altering passages he felt unsuitable for the ears of his wife and children.”
Title page, “in which nothing is added to the original text; but those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in the family.” Image from Wikipedia.
Sister Harriet—Prude or Not? Wikipedia notes, “Despite the fact that Thomas’ name was ultimately the sole listed author on all later editions, the 1807 first edition (which appeared anonymously) was in fact largely the work of his sister, Harriet. This omission of authorship was likely because a woman could not then publicly admit that she was capable of such editing and compilation, much less that she understood Shakespeare’s racy verses. It took nearly two centuries for Harriet to receive due credit for her work.”
“In the preface,” Wikipedia recounts, “Harriet describes her editorial goal as to endeavour ‘to remove every thing that could give just offence to the religious and virtuous mind,’ and to omit ‘many speeches in which Shakespeare has been tempted to “purchase laughter at the price of decency.” ’ ”
“However,” Wikipedia continues, “in Harriet’s edition she occasionally went beyond this ‘religious and virtuous’ mission: in addition to the primary excisions of sexual material or Roman Catholic references that might prove unfavorable for good Protestants, Harriet also edited out scenes that she felt were trivial or uninteresting. These excisions amounted to approximately 10% of the original text. The edition was not particularly successful.”
The Second Edition (1818). “This edition,” Wikipedia says, “commandeered by Thomas rather than his sister, contained all 36 available plays in 10 volumes. Beyond adding 16 new plays, Thomas also re-edited the 20 plays previously expurgated by his sister, and reinserted the scenes that she had removed not for their inappropriate content but because she considered them trivial or uninteresting.”
A “Bowlderized” Othello. What with themes of sexuality, adultery, and miscegenation, Othello was a toughie for Bowlder. Wikipedia gives two examples: Completely excised from Act I Scene 1 is Iago’s “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/ Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise!”
And also in Act I Scene 1 is Iago’s “I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter/ And the Moor are <now> making the beast/ With two backs, ” which Bowlder changes to “Your daughter and the Moor are now together.”
A Bowdler Cop-out.“Indeed,” Wikipedia observes, “at the conclusion of the preface, Bowdler recommends that ‘if, after all that I have omitted, it shall still be thought that this inimitable tragedy is not sufficiently correct for family reading, I would advise the transferring it from the parlour to the cabinet, where the perusal will not only delight the poetic taste, but convey useful and important instruction both to the heart and the understanding of the reader.’ ”
Burr: A Novel, by Gore Vidal, Vintage, 2000.
Kids will just have to wait until 1973 to learn about “the beast with two backs” in Gore Vidal’s Burr: A Novel. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024