Editing Thomas Bowdler

{{Short description|English physician and editor (1754–1825)}}
{{redirect|Bowlder|boulders|Boulder}}
{{For|the Anglican divine and nephew of this person|Thomas Bowdler the Younger}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox person
|image=Bowdler-title-page.png
|name = Thomas Bowdler
|honorific_suffix = [[Royal College of Physicians|LRCP]] [[Royal Society|FRS]]
|caption = Title page of Bowdler's best-known work
|birth_date = 11 July 1754
|birth_place = [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], [[Somerset]], England
|death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1825|2|24|1754|7|11}}
|death_place = [[Swansea]], Wales
|occupation = Physician, editor
|notable_works = ''The Family Shakspeare'' (1807)
}}
'''Thomas Bowdler''' {{Post-nominals|country=UK|LRCP|FRS}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|aʊ|d|l|ər}}; 11 July 1754 – 24 February 1825) was an English [[physician]] known for publishing ''[[The Family Shakespeare]]'', an [[expurgated]] edition of [[William Shakespeare]]'s plays edited by his sister [[Henrietta Maria Bowdler]]. The two sought a version they saw as more appropriate than the original for 19th-century women and children. Bowdler also published works reflecting an interested knowledge of continental Europe. His last work was an expurgation of [[Edward Gibbon]]'s ''[[Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'', published posthumously in 1826 under the supervision of his nephew and biographer, [[Thomas Bowdler the Younger]]. From his name derives the eponym verb ''bowdlerise'' or ''bowdlerize'', meaning ''to expurgate'' or ''to censor something'' through the omission of elements deemed unsuited to children in literature and films and on television.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.clearplay.com/ |title=Filter Amazon streaming with ClearPlay |access-date=25 December 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160129175232/https://www.clearplay.com/ |archive-date=29 January 2016}}</ref>

==Biography==
Thomas Bowdler was born on 11 July 1754,<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Bowdler, Thomas}}</ref> in [[Box, Wiltshire|Box]], near [[Bath, Somerset]], the youngest son of the six children of Thomas Bowdler (c. 1719–1785), a banker of substantial fortune,<ref>Bowdler, p. 18</ref> and his wife, [[Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler|Elizabeth, ''née'' Cotton]] (d. 1797), the daughter of [[Cotton baronets#Cotton baronets.2C of Connington .281611.29|Sir John Cotton, 6th Baronet]] of [[Conington, Huntingdonshire]].<ref name=Gents>[https://books.google.com/books?id=_bLPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA241 "The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 202"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216131403/https://books.google.com/books?id=_bLPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA241 |date=16 February 2017}} p. 241</ref><ref name=odnb/>  Bowdler studied medicine at the universities of [[University of St. Andrews|St Andrews]] and [[University of Edinburgh|Edinburgh]], where he received his degree in 1776, graduating with a thesis on intermittent fevers.<ref name=bmj>Poynter, F. N. L. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/20329444 "Thomas Bowdler"], {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170319000321/http://www.jstor.org/stable/20329444 |date=19 March 2017}} ''[[The British Medical Journal]], Vol. 2, No. 4879, 10 July 1954, pp. 97–98.</ref> 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.<ref name=dnb>Lee, Sidney. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/olddnb/3032 "Bowdler, Thomas (1754–1825), editor of the 'Family Shakespeare'"], {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924162924/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/olddnb/3032 |date=24 September 2015}} ''Dictionary of National Biography'', 1885, ODNB archive. Retrieved 17 December 2011 {{subscription required}}</ref> He returned to England in broken health and with a strong aversion to the medical profession. In 1781 he was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] (FRS) and a Licentiate of the [[Royal College of Physicians]] (LRCP), but he did not continue to practise medicine.<ref name=bmj/> He devoted himself instead to the cause of [[prison reform]].<ref name=bmj/>

Bowdler was a strong [[chess]] player and once played eight recorded games against the best chess player of the time, [[François-André Danican Philidor]], who was so confident of his superiority that he played with several [[Chess handicap|handicaps]]. Bowdler won twice, lost three times, and [[draw (chess)|drew]] three times.<ref>Philidor was usually blindfolded and playing multiple opponents simultaneously, and sometimes started without one pawn. The first recorded game to feature a double [[Rook (chess)|rook]] [[Sacrifice (chess)|sacrifice]] was played between Bowdler (white) and [[Henry Seymour Conway|H. Conway]] in London in 1788. See [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1282695 "Dr. Thomas Bowdler vs Henry Seymour Conway"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025063917/http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1282695 |date=25 October 2012 }}, Chessgames.com. Retrieved 16 December 2011</ref> The [[Sicilian Defence#Other moves|Bowdler Attack]] is named after him.

[[File:Times-Bowdler.png|thumb|left|400px|Advertisement for 1819 edition of ''The Family Shakspeare'']]
Bowdler's first published work was ''Letters Written in Holland in the Months of September and October 1787'' (1788), giving an eye-witness account of the [[Prussian invasion of Holland]].<ref name=odnb>Loughlin-Chow, M. Clare, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3032 "Bowdler, Thomas (1754–1825)"], {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306025815/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3032 |date=6 March 2016}} ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', [[Oxford University Press]], 2004; online edition, January 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2011 {{subscription required}}</ref>  In 1800 Bowdler took a lease on a country estate at St Boniface, on the [[Isle of Wight]], where he lived for ten years.<ref name=odnb/> In September 1806, aged 52, he married Elizabeth Trevenen (née Farquharson), aged 48, widow of a naval Captain James Trevenen, who had died in Catherine the Great's service at Kronstadt in 1790.<ref name=odnb/> The marriage was unhappy and after a few years they separated. They had no children. After the separation, the marriage was never mentioned in the Bowdler family. The biography of Bowdler by his nephew, [[Thomas Bowdler the Younger|Thomas Bowdler]], makes no mention of him ever marrying.<ref name=odnb/>

In 1807, the first edition of the Bowdlers' ''The Family Shakspeare'', covering 20 plays, appeared in four small volumes.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/004144456 |title=The family Shakespeare ... |last1=Shakespeare |first1=William |last2=Bowdler |first2=Thomas |date=1807|publisher=J. Hatchard|location=London}}</ref> From 1811 until his death in 1825, Bowdler lived at Rhyddings House, overlooking [[Swansea]] Bay, from where he travelled extensively in Britain and Europe. In 1815, he published ''Observations on Emigration to France, With an Account of Health, Economy, and the Education of Children'', a cautionary work propounding his view that English invalids should avoid French [[spa]]s and go instead to [[Malta]].<ref name=bmj/> In 1818, Bowdler published an expanded edition of ''The Family Shakspeare'', covering all 36 available plays. This had much success.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |url=https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/07/11/bowdlerize/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181108105409/https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/07/11/bowdlerize/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 November 2018 |title=What did Bowdler bowdlerize? {{!}} OxfordWords blog|date=11 July 2016 |work=OxfordWords blog |access-date=8 November 2018 |language=en-US}}</ref> By 1827 the work was in its fifth edition.<ref>Classified Advertisements, ''[[The Observer]]'', 10 June 1827, p. 1.</ref> In his last years, Bowdler prepared an expurgated version of the works of the historian [[Edward Gibbon]], which was published posthumously in 1826.<ref name=odnb/> His sister [[Jane Bowdler]] (1743–1784) was a poet and essayist. Another sister, [[Henrietta Maria Bowdler]] (Harriet) (1750–1830), collaborated with Bowdler on his expurgated Shakespeare.<ref name=odnb/>

Bowdler, at aged 70, died at Rhyddings near [[Swansea]] on 24 February 1825,<ref name="EB1911"/> and was buried at [[Oystermouth]].<ref name=odnb/> He left bequests to the poor of Swansea and Box.<ref>Bowdler, p. 329.</ref> His large library of [[unexpurgated]] volumes of 17th and 18th century tracts, collected by his ancestors Thomas Bowdler (1638–1700) and Thomas Bowdler (1661–1738), was donated to the [[University of Wales, Lampeter]]. In 1825 Bowdler's nephew, also a Thomas Bowdler, published ''Memoir of the Late John Bowdler, Esq., to Which Is Added, Some Account of the Late Thomas Bowdler, Esq. Editor of the Family Shakspeare''.

==''The Family Shakespeare''==
{{Main|The Family Shakespeare}}
In Bowdler's childhood, 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. Bowdler felt it was worthwhile to publish an edition which might be used in a family whose father was not such a "circumspect and judicious reader" as to accomplish an expurgation himself.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=The Great Variety of Readers |title=Shakespeare Survey |edition=18 |last=Brown |first=Arthur |editor=Allardyce Nicoll |year=1965 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] | isbn= 978-0-521-52354-7 | pages=18 | location=[[Cambridge]] | editor-link= Allardyce Nicoll }}</ref>

In 1807, the first edition of ''The Family Shakspeare'' appeared in four [[book size|duodecimo]] volumes, containing 24 plays. In 1818 a second edition ensued covering all 36 available plays.<ref name=":0"/> Each play has an introduction where Bowdler summarises and justifies his textual changes. According to his nephew's ''Memoir,'' the first edition was prepared by Bowdler's sister Harriet, but both appeared under Thomas Bowdler's name, probably because a woman would then be reluctant to admit publicly that she could do such work or even understand Shakespeare's racy verses.<ref>Jessica Tabak [http://www.american.edu/cas/success/literature-brideoake-091102.cfm "Acts of Omission: Fiona Brideoake examines 19th-century censored Shakespeare"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091222204018/https://www.american.edu/cas/success/literature-brideoake-091102.cfm |date=22 December 2009}}, 2 November 2009.</ref> By 1850 eleven editions had appeared.

The spelling "Shakspeare", used by Bowdler and by his nephew Thomas in his memoir of Thomas Bowdler the elder,<ref>Bowdler, pp. 31–32 and ''passim''</ref> was changed in later editions (from 1847 on) to "Shakespeare", reflecting general [[spelling of Shakespeare's name]].<ref name="name">[http://catalogue.bl.uk/F/BFD5IYFEJ7P7TAT1J98P96YUDYQUYU76B7E27AQ9TH5QN1X2E3-52421?func=find-b&request=Thomas+Bowdler+Family+Shakespeare&find_code=WRD&adjacent=N Integrated Catalogue], The [[British Library]]. Retrieved 17 December 2011; [http://www.worldcat.org/title/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/oclc/2661877/editions?start_edition=1&sd=asc&referer=br&se=yr&qt=sort_yr_asc&editionsView=true&fq= "The Family Shakspeare"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301223816/http://www.worldcat.org/title/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/oclc/2661877/editions?start_edition=1&sd=asc&referer=br&se=yr&qt=sort_yr_asc&editionsView=true&fq= |date=1 March 2017}}, [[WorldCat]]. Retrieved 17 December 2011</ref>

The Bowdlers were not the first to undertake such a project, but Bowdler's commitment not to augment or add to Shakespeare's text, merely remove sensitive material, contrasted with earlier practice. [[Nahum Tate]] as [[Poet Laureate]] had rewritten the [[tragedy]] of ''[[King Lear]]'' with a happy ending; in 1807, [[Charles Lamb (writer)|Charles Lamb]] and [[Mary Lamb]] published ''[[Tales from Shakespeare]]'' for children with synopses of 20 of the plays, but seldom quoted the original text.<ref name="bmj"/> Though ''The Family Shakespeare'' was seen as a negative example of censorship by the literary establishment and its commitment to "authentic" Shakespeare, the Bowdler editions made it more acceptable to teach Shakespeare to wider and younger audiences.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bowdlers-wanted-clean-shakespeare-not-become-byword-censorship-180963945/ |title=The Bowdlers Wanted to Clean Up Shakespeare, Not Become a Byword for Censorship |last=Eschner |first=Kat |work=Smithsonian |access-date=8 November 2018 |language=en}}</ref>{{according to whom|date=September 2024}} According to the poet [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]], "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."<ref name="odnb"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Swinburne |first=Algernon Charles |title=Studies in prose and poetry |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/studiesinprosepo00swinuoft#page/98 |date=1915 |publisher=Chatto & Windus|location=London |pages=84–109: 88–89 |chapter=Social Verse |isbn=9780836973310 |orig-year=1891}}</ref>
{{anchor|bowdlerise|bowdlerize|bowdlerism}}
===Changes===
Bowdler lent his name to the English verb '''bowdlerise''', which means "to remove words or sections from a book or other work that are considered unsuitable or offensive".<ref>[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/bowdlerize?q=bowdlerise ''bowdlerise''] in Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved 25 June 2022.</ref> The derivative noun is '''bowdlerism'''. Some examples of alterations made by Bowdler's edition:
* In ''[[Hamlet]]'', the death of [[Ophelia (character)|Ophelia]] was called an accidental drowning, not a possibly intended suicide.
* "God!" as an exclamation is replaced with "Heavens!"
* In ''[[Henry IV, Part 2]]'', the [[prostitute]] [[Doll Tearsheet]] is omitted outright, the slightly more reputable Mistress Quickly retained.

Prominent modern figures such as [[Michiko Kakutani]] (in ''[[The New York Times]]'') and [[William Safire]] (in his book ''How Not to Write'') have incorrectly accused Bowdler of changing Lady Macbeth's famous "Out, damned spot!" line in ''[[Macbeth]]'' to "Out, crimson spot!",<ref>Michiko Kakutani, "Light Out, Huck, They Still Want to Sivilize You", ''[[The New York Times]]'', 7 January 2011, at pp. C1 & 5 (only the original print version still contains the accusation – the online version has been corrected); William Safire, ''How Not to Write'' (1990; 2005 reprint), p. 100; {{Cite journal |first=Ross E. |last=Davies |year=2012 |title=Gray Lady Bowdler: The Continuing Saga of the Crimson Spot |journal=The Green Bag Almanac and Reader |pages=563–574 |ssrn=1758989}}</ref> when in fact this particular emendation was the work of [[Thomas Bulfinch]] and Stephen Bulfinch, in their 1865 edition of Shakespeare's works.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Ross E. |last=Davies |year=2009 |title=How Not to Bowdlerize |journal=The Green Bag Almanac and Reader |pages=235–240 |ssrn=1333764}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
*''The Family Shakespeare, Volume One, The Comedies'', {{ISBN|0-923891-95-1}}
*''The Family Shakespeare, Volume Two, The Tragedies'', {{ISBN|0-923891-98-6}}
*''The Family Shakespeare, Volume Three, The Histories'', {{ISBN|0-923891-99-4}}
*''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 aloud in a family by Thomas Bowdler in 10 volumes'', Facsimile reprint of 2nd edition, revised, in 1820, Eureka Press, 2009. {{ISBN|978-4-902454-16-1}}
*{{Cite book |last=Bowdler |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Bowdler the Younger |year=1825 |title=Memoir of the Late John Bowdler, Esq., To Which Is Added, Some Account of the Late Thomas Bowdler, Esq. Editor of the Family Shakspeare |location=London |publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green |oclc=13909543}}

==See also==
{{Wiktionary|bowdlerise}}
*''[[Ad usum Delphini]]''
*[[Anthony Comstock]]
*[[List of chess games]] (Bowdler, 1788)

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
*{{Cite book |last=Perrin |first=Noel |author2=David R. Godine |edition=2nd |orig-year=1969 |year=1992 |title=Dr. Bowdler's Legacy: a history of expurgated books in England and America |location=Boston |publisher=Nonpareil |isbn= 978-0-87923-861-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/drbowdlerslegacy00noel}}
*{{Cite book |last=Lynch |first=Jack |year=2007 |title=Becoming Shakespeare: the unlikely afterlife that turned a provincial playwright into the bard |location=New York |publisher=Walker & Co |isbn=978-0-8027-1566-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/becomingshakespe00lync}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowdler, Thomas}}
[[Category:1754 births]]
[[Category:1825 deaths]]
[[Category:Censors]]
[[Category:British chess players]]
[[Category:18th-century English medical doctors]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of St Andrews]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]