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Thomas Bowdler, LRCP, FRS (; 11 July 1754 – 24 February 1825) was an English physician and philanthropist, best known for publishing ''The Family Shakspeare'', an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's work, edited by his sister Henrietta Maria Bowdler, intended to be more appropriate for 19th century women and children than the original. Although early editions of the work were published with the spelling "Shakspeare", after Bowdler's death, later editions (from 1847) adopted the spelling "Shakespeare", reflecting changes in the standard spelling of Shakespeare's name.〔(Integrated Catalogue ), The British Library. Retrieved 17 December 2011; and ("The Family Shakspeare" ), WorldCat. Retrieved 17 December 2011〕 The verb ''bowdlerise'' (or ''bowdlerize'')〔American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization)| "-ize" is preferred in American English whereas "-ise" is the form used elsewhere.〕 has associated his name with the censorship not only of literature but also of motion pictures and television programmes. After several other publications, some reflecting his interest in and knowledge of continental Europe, Bowdler's last work was an expurgated version 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. ==Biography== Thomas Bowdler was born at Box, near Bath, Somerset, the youngest son of the six children of Thomas Bowdler (c. 1719–1785), a banker of substantial fortune,〔Bowdler, p. 18〕 and his wife, Elizabeth, ''née'' Cotton (d. 1797), the daughter of Sir John Cotton of Conington, Huntingdonshire.〔 Bowdler studied medicine at the universities of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, where he took his degree in 1776, graduating with a thesis on intermittent fevers.〔Poynter, F. N. L. ("Thomas Bowdler", ) '' ''The British Medical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 4879, 10 July 1954, pp. 97–98〕 He spent the next four years in travelling in continental Europe, visiting Germany, 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.〔Lee, Sidney. ("Bowdler, Thomas (1754–1825), editor of the 'Family Shakespeare'", ) ''Dictionary of National Biography'', 1885, ODNB archive. Retrieved 17 December 2011 〕 He returned to England in broken health, and with a strong aversion to his 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.〔 He devoted himself instead to the cause of prison reform.〔 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 handicaps. Bowdler won twice, lost three times, and drew three times.〔Philidor was usually blindfolded and playing multiple opponents simultaneously, and sometimes started without one pawn. The first recorded game to feature a double rook sacrifice was played between Bowdler (white) and H. Conway at London in 1788. See ("Dr. Thomas Bowdler vs Henry Seymour Conway" ), Chessgames.com. Retrieved 16 December 2011〕 Bowdler's first published work was ''Letters Written in Holland in the Months of September and October, 1787'' (1788), which gave his eye-witness account of the Patriots' uprising.〔Loughlin-Chow, M. Clare, ("Bowdler, Thomas (1754–1825)", ) ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2011 〕 In 1800 Bowdler took a lease on a country estate at St Boniface, on the Isle of Wight, where he lived for ten years.〔 In September 1806, when he was 52, he married Elizabeth Frevenen or Trevennen, the widow of a naval officer.〔 The marriage was unhappy, and after a few years Bowdler and his wife lived apart. They had no children. After the separation, the marriage was never referred to by the Bowdler family, and in the biography of Bowdler by his nephew, Thomas Bowdler, there is no mention of Bowdler's ever marrying.〔 In 1807 the first edition of the Bowdlers' ''The Family Shakspeare'' was published, in four small volumes. From 1811 until his death in 1825, Bowdler lived at Rhyddings House, overlooking Swansea Bay, from where he travelled extensively in Britain and continental 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 spas and go instead to Malta.〔 In 1818 Bowdler published an enlarged edition of ''The Family Shakspeare'', which had considerable success. By 1827 the work had gone into its fifth edition.〔Classified Advertisements, ''The Observer'', 10 June 1827, p. 1〕 In his last years, Bowdler prepared an expurgated version of the works of the historian Edward Gibbon, which was published posthumously in 1826.〔 His sister Jane Bowdler (1743–1784) was a poet and essayist, and another sister Henrietta Maria Bowdler (Harriet) (1750–1830) collaborated with Bowdler on his expurgated Shakespeare.〔 Bowdler died in Swansea at the age of 70 and was buried there, at Oystermouth.〔 He bequeathed donations to the poor of Swansea and Box.〔Bowdler, p. 329〕 His large library, consisting of unexpurgated volumes 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 called Thomas Bowdler, published his ''Memoir of the Late John Bowdler, Esq., to Which Is Added, Some Account of the Late Thomas Bowdler, Esq. Editor of the Family Shakspeare''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thomas Bowdler」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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