of The Family Shakspeare appeared in four duodecimo volumes, containing 24 plays. In 1818 a second edition ensued covering all 36 available plays. Each play has an introduction where Bowdler summarises and justifies his textual changes. According to his nephew's Memoir, the first edition was prepared by Bowdler's sister Harriet, but both appeared under Thomas Bowdler's name, probably because a woman would then be reluctant to admit publicly that she could do such work or even understand Shakespeare's racy verses. By 1850 eleven editions had appeared. The spelling "Shakspeare", used by Bowdler and by his nephew Thomas in his memoir of Thomas Bowdler the elder, was changed in later editions (from 1847 on) to "Shakespeare", reflecting general spelling of Shakespeare's name. The Bowdlers were not the first to undertake such a project, but Bowdler's commitment not to augment or add to Shakespeare's text, merely remove sensitive material, contrasted with earlier practice. Nahum Tate as Poet Laureate had rewritten the tragedy of King Lear with a happy ending; in 1807, Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb published Tales from Shakespeare for children with synopses of 20 of the plays, but seldom quoted the original text. Though The Family Shakespeare was seen as a negative example of censorship by the literary establishment and its commitment to "authentic" Shakespeare, the Bowdler editions made it more acceptable to teach Shakespeare to wider and younger audiences. According to the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, "More nauseous and more foolish cant was never chattered than that which would deride the memory or depreciate the merits of Bowdler. No man ever did better service to Shakespeare than the man who made it possible to put him into the hands of intelligent and imaginative children." Changes Bowdler lent his name to the English verb bowdlerise which means 'to remove words or sections from a book or other work that are considered unsuitable or offensive'. The derivative noun is bowdlerism. Some examples of alterations made by Bowdler's edition: In Hamlet, the death of Ophelia was called an accidental drowning, not a possibly intended suicide. "God!" as an exclamation is replaced with "Heavens!" In Henry IV, Part 2, the prostitute Doll Tearsheet is omitted outright, the slightly more reputable Mistress Quickly retained. Prominent modern figures such as Michiko Kakutani (in the New York Times) and William Safire (in his book, How Not to Write) have accused Bowdler of changing Lady Macbeth's famous