Bowdlerized Shakespeare

In the Edinburgh Review notice regarding the publication of Bowdler’s Family Shakespeare (1821-22), Francis Jeffrey, Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, praised the edition for meeting the needs of decent people everywhere: “Now it is quite undeniable, that there have been many passages in Shakespeare, which a father could not read aloud to his children – a brother to his sister – or a gentleman to a lady: – and every one almost muts have felt or witnessed the extreme awkwardness, and even distress, that arises from suddenly stumbling upon such expressions, when it is almost too late to avoid them, and when the readiest wit cannot suggest any paraphrase, which shall not betray, by its harshness, the embarrassment from which it has arisen. Those who recollect such scenes, must all rejoice, we should think, that Mr Bowdler has provided a security against their recurrence; and, as what cannot be pronounced in decent company cannot well afford much pleasure in the closet, we think it is better, every way, that what cannot be spoken, and ought not to have been written, should now cease to be printed.”

Jeffrey was in good company. Even a bardolater like Coleridge thought “Shakespeare’s words are too indecent to be translated . . . His gentlefolk’s talk is full of coarse allusions such as nowadays you could hear only in the meanest taverns.”