Dr THomas Bowdler (was, (well, is!) Profound disagreement


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Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on August 01, 2009 at 08:55:14 user ACB.

In Reply to: Re: Profound disagreement (was Thoughts on ) posted by Owen Roberts on July 31, 2009 at 22:00:21:

Owen, dear boy, a people who forget their history are condemned to repeat it.

Dr Thomas Bowdler was an early Victorian who published a "Family Shakespeare", with passages expurgated, because his father had been in the habit of reading aloud from Shakespeare to his children and when the young medical man went to read the texts for himself he realised that his father had been omitting some passages. hence the verb "to Bowdlerise", used perjoratively.

When I had recourse to Wikipedia to check my facts before writing this I found this very interesting comment on Dr Bowlder from a century or so ago:

"More nauseous and 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."

The writer was Algernon Charles Swinburne!

I rest my case.




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