Henrietta Maria Bowdler (1750–1830), commonly called Mrs. Harriet Bowdler, was an English religious author and literary expurgator, notably of the works of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Family

Bowdler was born in

Conington, Huntingdonshire Conington (Conington All Saints, or "Conington-juxta-Petriburg") is an English village and civil parish in the Cambridgeshire district of Huntingdonshire. Conington lies about 10 km (6 miles) south of Peterborough and 3 km (2 miles) north of S ...

, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler, and sister of John Bowdler and

Thomas Bowdler Thomas Bowdler, Royal College of Physicians, LRCP, Royal Society, FRS (; 11 July 1754 – 24 February 1825) was an English physician known for publishing ''The Family Shakespeare'', an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's plays edited by ...

the elders. Her sister

Jane Jane may refer to: * Jane (given name), a feminine given name * Jane (surname), related to the given name Film and television * ''Jane'' (1915 film), a silent comedy film directed by Frank Lloyd * ''Jane'' (2016 film), a South Korean drama fil ...

was the author of an anonymous, posthumously published series of religious ''Poems and Essays'', (2 vols., Bath, 1786), which appeared in many editions.

Writing

Bowdler's own ''Sermons on the Doctrines and Duties of Christianity'' appeared anonymously and passed through nearly 50 editions.

Beilby Porteus Beilby Porteus (or Porteous; 8 May 1731 – 13 May 1809), successively Bishop of Chester and of London, was a Church of England reformer and a leading abolitionist in England. He was the first Anglican in a position of authority to seriously c ...

Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, believed they were written by a clergyman, and is said to have offered their author, through the publishers, a living in his diocese. Bowdler is thought to have done most of the editing of the first expurgated edition of Shakespeare's works, ''The Family Shakspeare'' (1807).ODNB: M. Clare Loughlin-Chow, "Bowdler, Henrietta Maria (1750–1830)
Retrieved 15 March 2014, pay-walled.
/ref> She removed anything which seemed irreverent or immoral, deleting about 10% of the original works. The resulting edition was published under the name of her brother,

, after whom this type of treatment came to be known as

bowdlerisation Expurgation, also known as bowdlerization, is a form of censorship that involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive from an artistic work or other type of writing or media. The term ''bowdlerization'' is a pejorative term for the practi ...

. In 1810 Bowdler edited ''Fragments in Prose and Verse by the late Miss Elizabeth Smith'', which was very popular in religious circles. A novel by Bowdler, “Pen Tamar, or the History of an Old Maid”, was issued shortly after her death. She died at

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

on 25 February 1830.

Bluestocking

Although it is unclear whether she was a regular member of the

Blue Stockings Society The Blue Stockings Society, an informal women's social and educational movement in England in the mid-18th century, emphasised education and mutual cooperation. Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Vesey and others founded it in the early 1750s as a li ...

, there has survived a description of Harriet as a young lady by Gilbert Elliot,

earl of Minto Earl of Minto, in the County of Roxburgh, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1813 for Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Baron Minto. The current earl is Gilbert Timothy George Lariston Elliot-Murray-Kynyn ...

: "She is, I believe, a blue-stocking, but what the colour of that part of her dress is must be mere conjecture, as you will easily believe when I tell you that... she said she never looked at he dancers in operasbut always kept her eyes shut the whole time, and when I asked her why, she said it was so indelicate she could not bear to look."Quoted from ''

The Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term ''magazine'' (from the French ''magazine'' ...

'' (1830) in Noel Perrin: ''Dr. Bowdler's Legacy...'' (New York: Atheneum, 1969), p. 69.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowdler, Henrietta Maria 1750 births 1830 deaths English women writers 18th-century English writers 19th-century English novelists Anglican writers English women novelists 19th-century English women writers 18th-century English women writers People from Huntingdonshire English religious writers Women religious writers British censors