EDINBURGH REVIEW 



OF 



BOWDLER'S FAMILY SHAKSPEARE. 



No. 71. October, 1821. 



ART. III. The Family Shakspeare. In Ten Volumes I c 2mo. 

 In which nothing is added to the Text; but those Words and 

 Expressions are omitted which cannot with Propriety be read 

 aloud in a Family, By THOMAS BOWDLER, Esq., F.R.S. & 

 S. A. Price 3/ 3s. London. Longman and Co., 1818. 



WE have long intended to notice this very meritorious publica- 

 tion ; and are of opinion, that it requires nothing more than a 

 notice to bring it into general circulation. We are not ourselves, 

 we confess, particularly squeamish about incorrect expressions and 

 allusions ; and in the learned languages especially, which seldom 

 come into the hands of the more delicate sex, and can rareJy be 

 perused by any one for the gratification of a depraved taste, we 

 have not been very anxious about the dissemination of castrated 

 editions ; but in an author of such unbounded and deserved popu- 

 larity as our great Dramatist, whose volumes are constantly in the 

 hands of almost all who can read of both sexes, it is undoubtedly 

 of great consequence to take care that youth runs no risk of corrup- 

 tion in the pursuit of innocent amusement or valuable instruction ; 

 or rather, that no offence is offered to delicacy in the midst of the 

 purest gratification of taste. 



Now it is quite undeniable, that there are many passages in 

 Shakspeare, which a father could not read aloud to his chil- 

 dren a brother to his sister or a gentleman to a lady: and 

 every one almost must have felt or witnessed the extreme awk- 

 wardness, 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. 



