Everything old is new again

Have you ever heard of Thomas Bowdler? In the early 19th century, he and his sister Henrietta Maria decided that some of the masterworks of English literature - notably Shakespeare and Gibbon - were too bawdy and otherwise offensive

— David Frum (@davidfrum) February 18, 2023

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In the comments, a reader corrects me that it was Nahum Tate in the 1680s, not the Bowdlers a century and a quarter later, who rewrote Lear with a happy ending. https://t.co/5BbK73OuEF

— David Frum (@davidfrum) February 18, 2023