Number Acts and Scenes

Rationale: Number Acts and Scenes

We include both the @n attribute and the @xml:id attribute on <div> elements for acts and scenes because both are used at the processing stage.
The @n values are used to generate act and scene numbers when you cite your modernized edition in other texts going to print. For example, if you point to a scene in your modernized text from a critical paratext, the citation that will be rendered in the print edition of that critical paratext will be generated from the @n values that you provide in your modernized edition. @n values are also used to generate citations in HTML when you point to prologues, epilogues, or other intra-texts. For more information, see Number Prologues, Epilogues, and Intra-Texts.
The @xml:id values are used to generate act and scene numbers for the HTML output when you cite your modernized edition in other texts. For example, if you point to a scene in your modernized text froma critical paratext, the citation that will be rendered in the online edition of that critical paratext will be generated from the final portion (e.g., _a1, _s1, or _a1_s1) of the @xml:id values that you provide in your modernized edition.

Step-by-Step: Modernized Texts with Editorial Acts and Scenes

Wrap each act with the <div> element.
Add the @type attribute with the value "act".
Add the @n attribute with the act number as the value.
Do not include <head> elements for the act. The header for the next <div> element (i.e., the first scene or chorus) already serves as the header for the act.
Wrap each scene with the <div> element.
Add the @type attribute with the value "scene"
Add the @n attribute with the scene number as the value.
Do give the scene <div> elements a <head> element. Consult with your anthology lead about how your anthology is representing headers for scenes (e.g., 1.1; Act 1, Scene 1; Scene 1; Scene One).
Give acts xml:ids following this pattern: "emdABBR_M_a1", where ABBR is the DRE abbreviation for the work, a signifies act, and 1 is the number of the act.
Give scenes xml:ids following this pattern: "emdABBR_M_a1_s1", where ABBR is the DRE abbreviation for the work, a signifies act, 1 is the number of the act, s signifies scene, and 1 is the number of the scene.

Examples

<div type="act" n="1" xml:id="emdPLAY_M_a1">
  <div type="scene" n="1" xml:id="emdPLAY_M_a1_s1">
    <head>1.1</head>
    <!-- Content of the scene goes here -->
  </div>
  <!-- Additional scenes in Act 1 go here. -->
</div>
<div type="act" n="1" xml:id="emdH5_FM_a1">
  <div type="scene" n="1" xml:id="emdH5_FM_a1_s1">
    <head>Act 1, Scene 1</head>
    <!-- Content of the scene goes here -->
  </div>
  <!-- Additional scenes in Act 1 go here. -->
</div>

Rendering Note

In the body of the modernized edition, the scene headers will be 1.1 in the first case or Act 1, Scene 1 in the second case, using the text node of your <head> element. In the digital table of contents, the navigation pointers will be 1.1 in both cases, drawing from the n values of your <div> .
In the print edition, the scene headers will be whatever you have typed in the <head> element. The running titles of each page will include the @n value of the <div> .

Modernized Texts of Plays with Running Scenes Only: Step-by-Step

Wrap the scene with a <div> element.
Add a @type attribute with the value "scene".
Add an @n attribute with the scene number as the value.
Add an xml:id following this pattern: "emdABBR_M_s1", where ABBR is the DRE abbreviation for the work, s signifies scene, and 1 is the number of the scene.
Give the scene <div> element a <head> element. Consult with your anthology lead about how your anthology is representing headers for scenes (e.g., 1.1; Act 1, Scene 1; Scene 1; Scene One).
<div type="scene" n="1" xml:id="emdFV_M_s1">
  <head>Sc.1</head>
  <!-- Content of the scene goes here -->
</div>

Running Scenes and Act-Scenes

Some plays have a tradition of numbering scenes as subdivisions of acts (act-scenes) and as continuous scenes with no act divisions (running scenes). Timon of Athens is one such play. It’s the editor’s decision to privilege act-scenes or running scenes.1
If you prioritize act-scenes but want to capture running scenes as well, give the running scene number parenthetically in the <head> element. The xml:id of each <div> will reflect its act or act-scene number.
<div type="act" n="2" xml:id="emdTim_M_a2">
  <div type="scene" n="1" xml:id="emdTim_M_a2_s1">
    <head>2.1 (Sc. 3)</head>
    <!-- Content of the scene goes here -->
  </div>
  <!-- Remaining scenes in Act 2 go here -->
</div>
If you choose to privilege running scenes but want to capture act-scenes as well, give the act-scene number parenthetically in the <head> element. The xml:id of the each <div> will reflect the running scene number.
<div type="scene" n="1" xml:id="emdTim_M_s1">
  <head>Sc.1 (1.1)</head>
  <!-- Content of the scene goes here -->
</div>

Further Reading

Prosopography

Chloe Mee

Chloe Mee (she/her) worked as a research assistant with the LEMDO team over several periods from 2022 to 2025. She graduated from the University of Victoria in 2025 with a BA (Hons with distinction) in English. She will be studying at the University of British Columbia to complete her MA in English. Chloe collaborated with the LEMDO team on a VKURA internship in summer 2022, mainly focusing on Hamlet quartos. Following her internship, she also worked as a research assistant in 2022–23 and 2025.

Isabella Seales

Isabella Seales is a fourth year undergraduate completing her Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Victoria. She has a special interest in Renaissance and Metaphysical Literature. She is assisting Dr. Jenstad with the MoEML Mayoral Shows anthology as part of the Undergraduate Student Research Award program.

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.

Mahayla Galliford

Project manager, 2025-present; research assistant, 2021-present. Mahayla Galliford (she/her) graduated with a BA (Hons with distinction) from the University of Victoria in 2024. Mahayla’s undergraduate research explored early modern stage directions and civic water pageantry. Mahayla continues her studies through UVic’s English MA program and her SSHRC-funded thesis project focuses on editing and encoding girls’ manuscripts, specifically Lady Rachel Fane’s dramatic entertainments, in collaboration with LEMDO.

Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVic’s 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

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

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.

Bibliography

Taylor, Gary, John Jowett, Terri Bourus, and Gabriel Egan, eds. The New Oxford Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. WSB aaag2304.

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 Number Acts and Scenes
Type of text Documentation
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.