Folklore: Child's Ballads and Child's Shakespeare

Subject: Folklore: Child's Ballads and Child's Shakespeare
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 03 Jun 05 - 12:49 AM

Does the expurgated Child's Shakespeare - oringinate from the same pen that wrote the far more earthy Child's Ballads? Did he have an explanation for censoring one and allowing the other to run rampant?

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

solid, academic thread-pointers appreciated.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Child's Ballads and Child's Shakespeare
From: KateG
Date: 03 Jun 05 - 10:53 AM

I don't think so. The Child ballads are so called because they were collected by Francis J. Child (1825-1896), not because they were intended for children.

A quick search on abebooks.com, turned up a number of late 19th and early 20th century versions of Shakespeare with titles such as "Children's Shakespeare" and "Tales from Shakespeare for Children" by various authors and editors, all of whom simplified and expurgated the plays to a greater or lesser degree to make them suitable for the delicate ears of children. The best known is probably Charles & Mary Lamb's "Tales from Shakespeare for Children" which translated the plays into prose stories -- and naturally leaving out the naughty bits.