Quote:
Originally Posted by doubleshuffle
"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." - Swinburne
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A friend of mine, who is an English teacher, made that very point to me a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about Shakespeare, and she said that it was Bowdler who was largely responsible for his popularity in the 19th century, by producing an edition of his work which could be taught in schools. In my schooldays in the 1970s, we certainly had "school editions" of Shakespeare which were edited to remove the rude bits.