LEMDO: Encode Cast Lists in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions

Encode Cast Lists in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions

¶ Disambiguation

The


                                          <castList>

element is used only for character lists that appear in early modern playbooks (manuscript or print). Do not add a character list to a semi-diplomatic transcription unless there is already a character list in the document. LEMDO does not use the


                                          <castList>

element for editorial character lists in modern texts; instead, the editor will create a


                                          <listPerson>

in the


                                          <teiHeader>

of the modern text.

¶ Rationale

The print or manuscript list of characters is part of the text that you are transcribing in a semi-diplomatic transcription. It contains important information for book and performance historians. The list of characters either precedes (as in the case of Rhodon and Iris) or follows (as in the case of Timon of Athens in F1) the body of the play.

¶ Practice

Placement: The


                                          <castList>

belongs in either the


                                          <front>

element if it precedes the spoken text of the play, or in the


                                          <back>

element if it follows the spoken text of the play. Where there are other preliminary or postliminal materials, encode the


                                          <castList>

where it appears in the sequence of paratexts in the copy you are transcribing.

Wrap the entire character list in the


                                          <castList>

element. If there is a header (e.g., “Dramatis Personae” or “The Names of the Actors”, transcribe it accurately and wrap it in a


                                          <head>

element as the first child of


                                          <castList>

. The basic model for encoding each character is as follows:

<castItem>
<role>Name of character</role>
<roleDesc>Description of role</roleDesc>
</castItem>

If characters are grouped together (e.g., with a brace) so as to share a


                                          <roleDesc>

, use the


                                          <castGroup>

element to group two or more


                                          <castItem>

elements. The


                                          <roleDesc>

goes outside the


                                          <castItem>

elements. The basic model for encoding a character group is as follows:

<castGroup>
  <castItem>
    <role>Name of first character</role>
  </castItem>
  <castItem>
    <role>Name of second character</role>
  </castItem>
  <roleDesc>Shared descriptor</roleDesc>
</castGroup>

If you want to capture the mise-en-page and the length of the brace using CSS Flex, you will need to wrap an additional


                                          <castGroup>

element around your


                                          <castItem>

elements and add the


                                          <metamark>

element for the brace. The basic model for encoding a character group with the brace is as follows:

<castGroup>
  <castGroup>
    <castItem>Name of first character</castItem>
    <castItem>Name of second character</castItem>
  </castGroup>
  <metamark>}</metamark>
  <roleDesc>Shared descriptor</roleDesc>
</castGroup>

This encoding pattern gives you three cognate containers to style using CSS Flex: the child


                                          <castGroup>

element, its sibling


                                          <metamark>

element, and its sibling


                                          <roleDesc>

element. See Encode Advanced Style in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions.

Optional: You may assign an xml:id to the


                                          <castItem>

element if you want to associate


                                          <sp>

elements with characters (using the


                                       @who

attribute and the xml:id you assigned to the


                                          <castItem>

¶ Examples

<castList>
  <head>Names of the Actors</head>
  <lb/>
  <castItem xml:id="emdDouai_Mac_duncan">
    <role>Duncan</role>
    <space dim="horizontal" unit="em" quantity="2"/>
    <roleDesc>King of Scotland</roleDesc>
  </castItem>
  <lb/>
  <castGroup style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
    <castGroup>
      <castItem xml:id="emdDouai_Mac_malcolm">
        <role>Malcolme</role>
      </castItem>
      <lb/>
      <castItem xml:id="emdDouai_Mac_donalbain">
        <role>Donalbaine</role>
      </castItem>
    </castGroup>
    <metamark style="transform: scaleY(3); transform-origin: center; margin: 0 1em;">}</metamark>
    <roleDesc>his sons</roleDesc>
  </castGroup>
  
</castList>

Prosopography

Janelle Jenstad

Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.

Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he assumed in 2020 after three years as the Lead Developer on LEMDO.

Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVicʼs Humanities Computing and Media Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.

Navarra Houldin

Project manager 2022–present. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA in History and Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. During their degree, they worked as a teaching assistant with the University of Victoriaʼs Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America.

Tracey El Hajj

Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

Metadata

Authority title	Encode Cast Lists in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions
Type of text	Documentation
Short title
Publisher	University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
Series	Linked Early Modern Drama Online
Source	TEI Customization created by Martin Holmes, Joey Takeda, and Janelle Jenstad; documentation written by members of the LEMDO Team
Editorial declaration	n/a
Edition	Released with Linked Early Modern Drama Online 1.0
Encoding description	Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
Document status	prgGenerated
Funder(s)	Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
License/availability	This file is licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license, which means that it is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the author and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and/or data; (2) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except in quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (3) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the editor and LEMDO. This license allows for pedagogical use of the documentation in the classroom.