Evolution Of Profanity

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of buttons in his
day- which is one reason he was so phenomenally popular. Despite what
they tell you, people like having their buttons pushed" (Macrone 6).
Because his works contained so many of these profane words or phrases,
they were censored to protect the innocent minds of the teenagers who
are required to read them, and also because they were blasphemous and
offensive. Almost all of the profanity was removed, and that that was
not had just reason for being there. Some of the Bard's censored oaths
are;

"God's blessing on your beard"
Love's Labors Lost, II.i.203
This was a very rude curse because a man's facial hair
was a point of pride for him. and "to play with someone's
beard" was to insult him.

"God's body"
1 Henry IV,II.i.26
Swearing by Christ's body, (or any part thereof,) was off
...

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as they touched directly on
the crucifixion. "'Sblood" had twelve occurrences in all. There were
eight times in 1 Henry IV (with Falstaff accounting for six), plus
once in Henry V, twice in Hamlet, and once in Othello. 'Sblood occurs
less than 'zounds, but is equally offensive and means basically the
same thing.
Several other words came from Great Britain, but were not
included in Shakespeare's works. Today the expression "Gadzooks!" is
not particularly offensive to most. Of course, most don't know what
it originally meant. Gadzooks was originally slang for "God's hooks,"
and was equally offensive to 'zounds and 'sblood as it also ...

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