pruderie

Nobody can possibly call him squeamish: I do not know that even any French naturalist of the latest school has charged the author of _Pericles_, and _Love's Labour Lost_, and _Henry IV. _, with that _pruderie bête_ of which they accuse Scott.

A History of Elizabethan Literature George Saintsbury 1889

Sir Walter Scott was accused of "_pruderie_ bête"; I am sure the adjective and substantive are much better mated in my text.

A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century George Saintsbury 1889