In his book "Dr. Bowdler's Legacy" Noel Perrin tells us in the first chapter that a big change of morality took place with the turn of the nineteenth century in England. He puts it as follows: "... the first new generation of the nineteenth century (grew) up more strait-laced, inhibited, and conventional than its parents, so that sons discussed their fathers' wild oaths, and daughters worried about their mothers' loose sexual behaviour." According to Perrin one of the cornerstones of this new way of thinking was that the people began to acquire a more reserved attitude towards sexuality. The chief cause of this tendency was what can be called the rise of the idea of delicacy, or "the new prudery". From the middle of the eighteenth century onwards, delicacy came to be regarded as a special and precious characteristic - especially among women. Basically, it means that people felt offended as soon as they were confronted with sexuality in whatever form. Blushing and fainting were outward indicators of this new propriety. Another consequence was that people began to keep away from anything that might be a burden on their conscience.
An important result of this trend was the emergence of the idea of expurgation in literature. That is people simply started to remove "words or scenes that were considered likely to offend or shock".
The pioneering work in this field was Dr. Bowdler's "Family Shakespeare", which was published in 1807. Dr. Bowdler's aim was - according to the fashion of his time - "to exclude from this publication whatever is unfit to be read aloud by a gentleman to a company of ladies". In another passage he says that he wants to enable a father to read one of Shakespeare's plays to his family circle "without incurring the danger of falling unawares among words and expressions which are of such a nature as to raise a blush on the cheek of modesty ...".
As he says in the preface to the first edition, Bowdler was primarily concerned with profanity and obscenity. In this essay I will constrict myself to the field of obscenity in its sexual dimension.
In the first part of my paper I will watch a Victorian at work by examining Bowdler's version of "Romeo and Juliet" and comparing it to Shakespeare's. What kind of words and passages does he change and in what way does he revise them? Does he treat different terms in different ways?
Table of Contents
1 General introduction
2 Dr. Bowdler's "Family Shakespeare"
2.1 Methods
2.2 The original and the expurgated version of "Romeo and Juliet" compared
2.3 Comments
3 Bailey's and Johnson's dictionaries
3.1 Methods
3.2 Wordlists for Bailey and Johnson
3.3 Comments
4 Summary
Research Objectives and Themes
This paper investigates the historical treatment of sexually explicit language in English literature and lexicography, specifically questioning whether the prudishness associated with Victorian "Bowdlerism" was a novel invention or a continuation of earlier eighteenth-century linguistic and moral tendencies. By examining Dr. Bowdler's expurgated version of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" and comparing it to entries in the influential dictionaries of Nathaniel Bailey and Samuel Johnson, the study aims to uncover the strategies used to manage obscenity.
- Analysis of Victorian-era literary expurgation and the concept of "delicacy."
- Comparative study of original vs. revised Shakespearean texts.
- Investigation into the comprehensiveness and moral biases of eighteenth-century dictionaries.
- Categorization of sexual terminology across standard and lower registers.
- Evaluation of lexicographical moralizing and the exclusion of sexual content.
Excerpt from the Book
2.1 Methods
First of all, I want to recall the questions I have in the back of my mind. What kind of words and passages does he revise? What are his techniques? Does he only leave words out or does he also replace Shakespeare's terms with his own? Does he deal with words from different backgrounds differently?
My first step was to copy out all the passages that Bowdler changes in whatever way. After I had done so I thought it convenient - especially as regards my focus on sexuality - to divide them up into the following five groups:
A. Sexually charged images which are creations by Shakespeare. Shakespeare combined words in such a way that they are to do with sex in some way or other. To give an example: 1,1,213 (Romeo laments about being rejected by Rosaline): "She will not ... ope her lap to saint-seducing gold." (Bowdler deleted the whole sentence.)
B. Terms carrying sexual meaning which belonged to the lower registers of English at that time. An example is: 4,4,19 (Capulet to a servant): "A merry whoreson, ha." (Bowdler changed "whoreson" into "fellow".)
Summary of Chapters
1 General introduction: This chapter introduces the rise of nineteenth-century "prudery" and the concept of literary expurgation, outlining the author's intent to compare Shakespearean revisions with eighteenth-century lexicographical trends.
2 Dr. Bowdler's "Family Shakespeare": The chapter examines the specific editorial techniques used by Thomas Bowdler to sanitize Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," categorizing the types of sexual language he targeted.
2.1 Methods: This section details the methodological approach for classifying Shakespearean passages into five distinct groups based on the nature of the sexual content.
2.2 The original and the expurgated version of "Romeo and Juliet" compared: This section presents a comparative list of original versus expurgated text, highlighting the specific deletions and substitutions made.
2.3 Comments: The author evaluates the extent of Bowdler’s revisions, noting that omissions were the primary method used to handle sexual content.
3 Bailey's and Johnson's dictionaries: This chapter contextualizes the two most prominent dictionaries of the eighteenth century and their claims to comprehensive language coverage.
3.1 Methods: This section outlines the process of creating wordlists from standard and lower registers to test the comprehensiveness of Bailey and Johnson.
3.2 Wordlists for Bailey and Johnson: This section presents detailed tables comparing the inclusion or omission of specific sexual terms in Bailey's and Johnson's works.
3.3 Comments: The author analyzes the dictionaries, concluding that they were not comprehensive and often reflected the personal moral biases of the lexicographers.
4 Summary: The final chapter synthesizes findings to argue that moralizing and expurgation were already embedded in eighteenth-century culture, preceding the Victorian era.
Keywords
Bowdlerism, Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, eighteenth-century, dictionary, lexicography, expurgation, prudery, sexual language, lower register, standard register, moralizing, Samuel Johnson, Nathaniel Bailey, linguistic history.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this research?
The research focuses on the history of sexual language in English and how literature and dictionaries attempted to sanitize or exclude such content during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
What are the primary thematic areas?
The main themes include Victorian prudery, literary censorship (Bowdlerism), lexicographical standards, and the linguistic distinction between standard and "vulgar" language registers.
What is the primary research question?
The author questions whether sexual prudery was a unique Victorian phenomenon or if it had deeper roots in the earlier eighteenth century, reflected in the editorial and lexicographical practices of that time.
Which methods are utilized?
The study employs a comparative analysis method, pitting original literary texts against expurgated versions and evaluating dictionary contents against lists of identified sexual terminology.
What is addressed in the main body?
The main body examines Dr. Bowdler’s revisions of "Romeo and Juliet" and analyzes the presence or absence of sexual terms in the dictionaries of Nathaniel Bailey and Samuel Johnson.
Which keywords define this work?
Keywords include Bowdlerism, Shakespeare, lexicography, expurgation, prudery, sexual language, and eighteenth-century dictionaries.
How does the author define the categories for Shakespearean revisions?
The author categorizes revisions into five groups, ranging from sexually charged imagery and lower-register slang to religious profanity and standard-register terminology.
What conclusion does the author reach regarding the dictionaries of Bailey and Johnson?
The author concludes that despite their claims of comprehensiveness, both dictionaries excluded significant sexual terminology and often used derogatory language in their definitions, indicating a strong moral rather than purely linguistic bias.
- Quote paper
- Thomas Eger (Author), 2001, Words and phrases that are to do with sex in literary and spoken English - Responses to offending language from the eighteenth and nineteenth century, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/56313
