Expurgation is a form of censorship by way of purging anything noxious, offensive, sinful, or erroneous, usually from an artistic work. In recent times, this has been known as bowdlerization after Thomas Bowdler, who in 1818 published an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's work that he considered to be more appropriate for women and children than the original. He similarly edited Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.