I acknowledge Shakespeare to be the world's greatest dramatic poet, but regret that no parent could place the uncorrected book in the hands of his daughter, and therefore I have prepared the Family Shakespeare.

The marriage was unhappy and after a few years Bowdler and his wife lived apart. In 1818 the second edition was publiThomas Bowdlerd. In his last years Bowdler prepared an expurgated version of the works of the historian Edward Gibbon which was publiThomas Bowdlerd posthumously in 1826.

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 publiThomas Bowdlerd posthumously in 1826 under the supervision of his nephew and biographer Thomas Bowdler the Younger. : /ˈbaʊdlər/; 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. Thomas Bowdler (pron.