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Access to Electronic Thesis Access to Electronic Thesis Author: David Skinner Thesis title: A Critical and Historical Analysis of Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespear and Thomas Bowdler's The Family Shakespear Qualification: PhD This electronic thesis is protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No reproduction is permitted without consent of the author. It is also protected by the Creative Commons Licence allowing Attributions-Non-commercial-No derivatives. If this electronic thesis has been edited by the author it will be indicated as such on the title page and in the text. A Critical and Historical Analysis of Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare and Thomas Bowdler’s The Family Shakespeare David Skinner Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Sheffield School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics December 2011 1 Abstract This thesis will discuss Charles and Mary Lamb’s 1807 Tales from Shakespeare and Thomas Bowdler’s 1818 The Family Shakespeare in a critical and historical context. Running through this thesis is the argument that these texts are cornerstones of children’s Shakespeare, though their reputations and contributions to the genre are buried beneath generations of misconceptions and sensationalism. This thesis provides a new perspective on Tales from Shakespeare and The Family Shakespeare that exposes the prejudices and misinformation surrounding them, offering an assessment of their respective adaptation methods and editorial influence over Shakespeare from the nineteenth century to the present. The first chapter introduces the thesis and identifies the scope of its research. It discusses the misconceptions surrounding the Lambs’ and Bowdler’s texts and examines the practice of reading Shakespeare in the home. The second chapter establishes the historical context of Tales from Shakespeare and The Family Shakespeare by examining the origins of both children’s literature and Shakespeare adaptations. It highlights influential educational philosophies, editorial trends, and critical debates in both of these fields. The third chapter discusses and contrasts the distinctive adaptation methods used by Charles and Mary Lamb respectively in Tales from Shakespeare . The fourth chapter discusses the adaptation methods used by Thomas Bowdler in The Family Shakespeare and distinguishes them from the accepted term bowdlerization. The fifth chapter establishes the legacy of the Lambs’ and Bowdler’s texts by discussing their influences over subsequent Shakespeare adaptations for children during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The sixth chapter presents the concluding arguments and final observations of the thesis. 2 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 5 Chapter 1: Introduction to the Thesis 1.1 – Popular Perceptions of the Lambs and Bowdler 6 1.2 – Reading Shakespeare at Home 9 1.3 – The Editorial Methods and Goals of the Lambs and Bowdler 14 1.4 – The Scope of the Thesis 18 Chapter 2: Historical Analysis of Children’s Literature and Shakespeare Adaptations 2.1 – Introduction 22 2.2 – Locke and the Origins of Children’s Literature 23 2.3 – Rousseau and Pre-Revolutionary Children’s Literature 30 2.4 – Revolutionary Developments for Children’s Literature 38 2.5 – Shakespeare Adaptations and the New Theatre 49 2.6 – Bringing Shakespeare Home 58 2.7 – Conclusion 69 Chapter 3: Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare 3.1 – Introduction 70 3.2 – Mary Lamb’s Madness 73 3.3 - Charles Lamb’s Shakespeare Folk Tales 80 3.4 - Mary Lamb and Thematic Abridgement 98 3.5 – Conclusion 119 3 Chapter 4: Thomas Bowdler’s The Family Shakespeare 4.1 – Introduction 122 4.2 – Shakespeare Expurgation Prior to Bowdler 127 4.3 – The Bowdler Family’s Editorial Tradition 132 4.4 – Separating Bowdler from Bowdlerization 140 4.5 – Bowdler’s Henry IV 153 4.6 – Bowdler’s Othello 160 4.7 – Bowdler’s Measure for Measure 170 4.8 – Conclusion 176 Chapter 5: The Lambs’ and Bowdler’s Adaptation Legacy 5.1 – Introduction 177 5.2 – Household Shakespeare Adaptations of the Nineteenth Century 179 5.3 – The Lambs in China 202 5.4 – Shakespeare Films and Animation for Children 209 5.5 – Conclusion 230 Chapter 6: Conclusion to Thesis 6.1 – Closing Arguments on the Lambs and Bowdler 232 Bibliography 236 4 Acknowledgements I would like thank Sylvia Adamson, Joe Bray, Danny Karlin, and Angela Wright for their assistance and support in the development of this project. This work is dedicated to my parents, William and Jo-ann Skinner, and to my sisters, Ruth and Julie. 5 Chapter 1: Introduction to the Thesis 1.1 – Popular Perceptions of the Lambs and Bowdler Shakespeare adaptations for children are one of the most controversial and sensational categories of Shakespeare studies. Though introducing young readers to the playwright and educating them in the nuances of his dramas can appear to be a benign, even altruistic, enterprise, it is actually fraught with perilous editorial debates that are overrun with misconceptions and distractions. At least, that is the conclusion that one reaches after examining two cornerstones of children’s Shakespeare: Charles and Mary Lamb‘s Tales from Shakespeare and Thomas Bowdler’s The Family Shakespeare. Tales from Shakespeare was designed to be a transitional text that prepared children for reading other Shakespeare editions and viewing performances of his plays. It was not always a source of controversy, but initially received substantial and consistent praise after it debuted in 1807. In 1808, The Critical Review declared that it was “unique, and without rival or competitor” among Shakespeare adaptations or children’s literature. 1 The anonymous reviewer praised its capacity to educate young readers on the complexities of Shakespeare’s plays. A subsequent review from The Gentleman’s Magazine later that year was equally enthusiastic, calling the text an ingenious introduction to Shakespeare for young readers. 2 However, closer to the present, critics are preoccupied with Mary Lamb’s history of mental illness. Texts such as Susan Tyler Hitchcock’s 2005 Mad Mary Lamb and Kathy Watson’s 2006 The Devil Kissed Her are more enamoured with the details of how she killed her own mother during a violent psychotic episode than with her skills as a Shakespeare editor. 1 Watson, Kathy. The Devil Kissed Her: The Story of Mary Lamb . (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004), 130. 2 Review of Tales from Shakespeare , by Charles and Mary Lamb. The Gentleman’s Magazine . Vol. 78, no. 2. (1808): 1001. 6 In contrast, The Family Shakespeare has been consistently controversial since it first appeared in 1818. Bowdler’s text is a censored adaptation of Shakespeare’s plays that is intended for family reading at home. Though his goal was to expurgate all material that he considered offensive to these readers, his actions drew significant criticism. An 1820 article in The Monthly Review declared that the text was published proof that “the nicest person has the nastiest ideas,” accusing him of exaggerating the playwright’s faults and removing so much material that it disrupted the dramas’ coherence. 3 Others, such as Reverend John Rogers Pittman in 1822, argued that The Family Shakespeare ’s plays were “injudiciously altered” and insufficiently “purified from coarse and profane expressions.” 4 A prominent critic and editor of Shakespeare editions, and later domestic chaplain to the Duchess of Kent, Pittman’s prestigious social standing lent significant public weight to his disapproval and encouraged subsequent criticism. These reactions coalesced when the Oxford English Dictionary devised the term “bowdlerize” in 1836, which equated Bowdler’s editing with castration. 5 The term misrepresents the complexities of Bowdler’s adaptation methods, and has contributed to the false image of him as an overzealous cutter that has been perpetuated to the present. With madness and castration being the two leading concepts that respectively define Tales from Shakespeare and The Family Shakespeare , it is easy to see how each collection’s didactic potential and significant influence over children’s Shakespeare adaptations have been overlooked. This thesis provides a new 3 Review of The Family Shakespeare , by Thomas Bowdler. The Monthly Review; or Literary Journal, Enlarged: From January to April, inclusive. Vol. 91. (1820): 433. 4 Pittman, John Rogers, ed. The School-Shakespeare; or, Plays and Scenes from Shakespeare, Illustrated for the Use of Schools with Glossarial Notes . (London: J. F. Dove, 1822), i. 5 "bowdlerize, v.". OED Online . September 2011. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com.eresources.shef.ac.uk/view/Entry/22199?redirectedFrom= bowdlerize (accessed December 09, 2011). 7 perspective on the Lambs’ and Bowdler’s texts by exposing the prejudices and misinformation that surround them, offering an assessment of their respective adaptation methods and an exploration of their editorial influence over Shakespeare from the nineteenth century to the present. It proves that there is more distinguishing these two texts and their legacy than Mary Lamb’s macabre personal history or the accusations of Bowdler’s severely misguided censorship methods. 8 1.2 – Reading Shakespeare at Home Uncovering the facts about the Lambs’ and Bowdler’s texts requires some understanding of the history of Shakespeare adaptations. For much of the seventeenth century, Shakespeare was regarded as an obsolete relic from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. However, by approximately 1660, his plays had gained notoriety in England through adaptation performances by Sir William Davenant’s Duke of York’s Company. The group’s success encouraged many subsequent imitators from the seventeenth century onwards. The second chapter of this thesis touches on several adaptations from the period, and their specific goals, in greater detail. By 1849, editor John W. S. Hows declared that adaptations had endowed Shakespeare with such an indomitable literary presence that his fame was “striding the world like a colossus.” 6 This acclaim was not obtained exclusively through the proliferation of theatrical Shakespeare adaptations, but was also owed to the playwright’s popularity as a subject for household reading from the late eighteenth century onwards.
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