LEMDO: Encode Character Lists in Modernized Texts

Encode Character Lists in Modernized Texts

Introduction

LEMDO produces a character list (also called a role list in LEMDO) only for the modernized texts. The character list is meant to be a truthful list of all the roles in the play. LEMDO also uses the list to cross-check the speech prefixes in the play and ensure consistency of name and spelling. You can add notes on the characters to this list.

LEMDO uses the list to generate the online and printed Character List in your edition. This character list is viewable from within the modernized text via the slide-out hamburger menu. Clicking on Characters pops out a pane on the right of the interface with a list of characters. It is also turned into a stand-alone page linked from the edition landing page, where it is entitled Role List. If your edition will be turned into a print-on-demand LEMDO Hornbook, your


                                          <listPerson>

will be used to generate a Character List section in the book.

Practice: Encode Your Character List

Locate Your Character List

You will receive a template file for your modernized text based on the semi-diplomatic transcription of your choice. The character list belongs in the


                                             <particDesc>

(participation description) of the


                                             <teiHeader>

of this file. Inside the


                                             <particDesc>

, you will find a


                                             <listPerson>

element with one sample


                                             <person>

entry. If you are not starting from a template, then you may need to add a


                                             <listPerson>

inside the


                                             <particDesc>

yourself and add a


                                          @type

attribute with the value "castList".¹ Follow the Basic Template for a Character to add each character.

Basic Template for a Character

The basic template for a single


                                             <listPerson>

with a single character is as follows. To create a full character list, add one


                                             <person>

element (and all of its child elements) for each character.

<particDesc>
 <listPerson type="castlist">
 <person xml:id="emdEG_M_Name">
 <persName>
 <name>Label for character</name>
 <reg>Allowed speech prefix</reg>
 </persName>
 <note type="editorial">
 Commentary on the character.
 </note>
 </person>
 </listPerson>
</particDesc>

Breakdown of Elements in the `<person>` Entry


                                                <person>

: Add one


                                                <person>

element for each character. If a character speaks, they must have a


                                                <person>

element in the


                                                <particDesc>

. If the character does not speak (as is often the case with masques and pageants), inclusion is optional. Discuss the appropriate strategy with your anthology lead.


                                             @xml:id

: Add the attribute


                                             @xml:id

to the


                                                <person>

element. Each character in your play must have a unique


                                             @xml:id

value. The


                                             @xml:id

values for your characters are constructed formulaically as follows: emd + name of your file + underscore + character name or short form thereof. For example, emdH5_FM_Warwick is the xml:id for Warwick in the folio modernized text of Henry V. Names of characters are capitalized.²


                                                <persName>

: The


                                                <persName>

element allows us to capture various names.

Each


                                                      <persName>

element must contain one child


                                                      <name>

element.

It may contain one or more child


                                                      <reg>

elements.


                                                <name>

: In the text node of the


                                                <name>

element, give the name of the character and any information you want to appear about the character in the online and print list. Usually, you will want to include just the name of the character or the name and brief note. Example: Rosalind, daughter of the banished duke


                                                <reg>

(“regularization”): Inside this element, type the exact wording of the speech prefix you want to use for this character throughout the play.

If you want to change speech prefixes for this character (for example, if the character’s name or status changes in the course of the play), create one


                                                      <reg>

element for each speech prefix.

LEMDO has diagnostics to check your speech prefixes for consistency; these diagnostics will check the contents of each of your


                                                <speaker>

elements in the play against the contents of the


                                                <reg>

elements in your


                                                <particDesc>

. If the diagnostics reveal inconsistencies, you will need to fix the text node of either the


                                                <reg>

element or the


                                                <speaker>

element.


                                                <note>

: The


                                                <note>

element allows you to add an extended commentary on the character. Wrap the content of your note in the

<p>

element. You may have multiple paragraphs in your note, each wrapped in the

<p>

element. Add the


                                             @type

attribute with a value of "editorial" and the


                                             @subtype

attribute of "onlineOnly" or "printOnly". Keep in mind that annotations can be capacious in the online environment but will be turned into footnotes in the LEMDO Hornbook. If your annotation is getting long, consider crafting a short "printOnly" version

Examples

A skeletal person entry:

A full person entry:

<person xml:id="emdH5_FM_Warwick">
 <persName>
 <name>Earl of Warwick</name>
 <reg>Warwick</reg>
 </persName>
 <note type="editorial" subtype="onlineOnly">
 Richard Beauchamp, thirteenth Earl of Warwick (1382-1439), also appears in <title level="m">1H6</title>. His presence at Agincourt is unhistorical; various sources have him either holding Calais for the English or returning to England with Clarence after Harfleur.
 </note>
</person>

A full person entry provides key information for the printed book and longer notes for the online publication.

<person xml:id="emdH5_FM_Pistol">
 <persName>
 <name>Ancient Pistol</name>
 <reg>Pistol</reg>
 </persName>
 <note type="editorial" subtype="printOnly">An <term>ancient</term> (<ref type="bibl" target="bibl:OEDT2">
 <title level="m">OED</title>
 <term>ensign</term>, n.7</ref>) is a standard-bearer.</note>
 <note type="editorial" subtype="onlineOnly">Pistol, whose name suggests both the notoriously inaccurate and noisy firearm and, through its likely pronunciation (<mentioned>pizzle</mentioned>), a penis (see <ptr type="localCit" target="doc:emdH5_FM#emdH5_FM_anc_1073"/> n.), is a recurring comic character who appears in <title level="m">2 Henry IV</title> and <title level="m">Merry Wives</title> as an associate of Sir John Falstaff. His appearance here in a more major role suggested to John Dover Wilson that he was a late replacement for Falstaff, who had originally been intended—as the epilogue to <ref type="bibl" target="bibl:CONN7">
 <title level="m">2 Henry IV</title>
 </ref> suggests—to participate in Henry’s French wars. <ptr type="localCit" target="doc:emdH5_FM#emdH5_FM_anc_6525"/> suggests that he was originally played with a beard.</note>
 <note type="textual">Since, as Malone argues, Pistol is elsewhere called merely <mentioned>ancient</mentioned> and not lieutenant (<ref type="bibl" target="bibl:MALO4">
 <title level="m">Plays</title>
 </ref>), some editors have considered this phrase an error and, taking their cue from the Quarto reading, <q>Ensigne</q> (<ref type="bibl" target="bibl:SHAK6">Q1 <title level="m">H5</title> C4r</ref>), have eliminated <q>lieutenant</q>. Craik suggests that listing the two ranks side by side represents an authorial correction unnoticed by the compositor (<ref type="bibl" target="bibl:CRAI3">
 <title level="m">King Henry V</title>
 </ref>). Gurr retains the Folio reading, glossing the phrase <q>sub-lieutenant</q>, but this retention is unnecessary (<ref type="bibl" target="bibl:GURR3">
 <title level="m">King Henry V</title>
 </ref>). Since <q>ancient</q> (or <q>aunchient</q>) describes his position as standard-bearer, not his rank, it is quite possible for Pistol to be both, i.e., an ancient with the rank of lieutenant. The Oxford editors made the case for modernizing Pistol’s rank to <q>Ensign</q>, but since <q>Ancient Pistol</q> is the more recognized name of the character I have chosen not to do so. At any rate, since <term>ensign</term> is chiefly now a naval rank, such a modernization would be somewhat inaccurate. See <ptr type="localCit" target="doc:emdH5_FM#emdH5_FM_anc_954"/> n.</note>
</person>

Special Case: Groups of Characters

Minor characters often function as a group. Common examples are lords, servants, soldiers, and officers. Rather than have a discrete


                                          <person>

element and


                                       @xml:id

value for each of these minor characters, you may wish to group them into one


                                          <person>

element with multiple


                                          <reg>

elements.

In the following example, the play contains multiple unnamed servants. The editor wishes to have one entry on the character list for Servants. Sometimes one servant speaks, so we have a


                                          <reg>

element for Servant. Sometimes two or more servants speak together, so we have a


                                          <reg>

element for Servants. This encoding allows the editor to use either Servant or Servants in the speech prefix without cluttering up the character list with multiple unnamed servants, as in this example:

<person xml:id="emd2H4_M_Servants">
 <persName>
 <name>Servants</name>
 <reg>Servant</reg>
 <reg>Servants</reg>
 </persName>
</person>

In the following example, the editor wishes to have one character list entry for all the lords, but number the lords in the speech prefixes. Sometimes two or more lords speak together.

<person xml:id="emdAYL_M_Lords">
 <persName>
 <name>Lords</name>
 <reg>Lords</reg>
 <reg>Lord</reg>
 <reg>First Lord</reg>
 <reg>Second Lord</reg>
 </persName>
</person>

Note that if our textual analysis tools count speeches or generate cue scripts, all of the speeches whose


                                       @who

attributes point to the same value will be counted together. Early modern performances probably assigned these parts flexibly, as do modern directors. It is logical to group the parts as a minor problem to be resolved in rehearsals.

In many cases, the decision to group characters is not trivial. For example, an editor will have to decide if the three witches in Macbeth constitute a group of indistinguishable witches or three distinct characters. In the following example, the editor treats the witches as a group. There will be one entry in the character list (Three Witches). The editor is expressing the belief that the speech assignments might well be adjusted with no impact on character.

<person xml:id="emdMac_M_Witch">
 <persName>
 <name>Three Witches</name>
 <reg>1 Witch</reg>
 <reg>2 Witch</reg>
 <reg>3 Witch</reg>
 <reg>All</reg>
 </persName>
</person>

In the following example, the editor distinguishes the three witches as individual. There will be three entries in the character list (1 Witch, 2 Witch, and 3 Witch.

<listPerson type="castlist">
 <person xml:id="emdMac_M_1Witch">
 <persName>
 <name>1 Witch</name>
 <reg>1 Witch</reg>
 </persName>
 </person>
 <person xml:id="emdMac_M_2Witch">
 <persName>
 <name>2 Witch</name>
 <reg>2 Witch</reg>
 </persName>
 </person>
 <person xml:id="emdMac_M_3Witch">
 <persName>
 <name>3 Witch</name>
 <reg>3 Witch</reg>
 </persName>
 </person>
</listPerson>

If one takes the latter approach, then speeches where all three witches speak together will need to follow the encoding protocols for Special Case: Multiple Speakers.

You want to think carefully about how to group characters because you are making an argument about the embodiment of character. The murderers in Macbeth present the editor with an interesting challenge. In this example, the editors decided to have three entries in the character list for murderers. They distinguish the murderers of Banquo from the murderers of Macduff (even though in performance there is a good chance that the same actors embody these different groups of murderers). They also distinguish the mysterious third murderer from the other two murderers of Banquo:

<listPerson type="castlist">
 <person xml:id="emdMac_M_Murderers_Banquo">
 <persName>
 <name>Two murderers employed by Macbeth</name>
 <reg>1 Murderer</reg>
 <reg>2 Murderer</reg>
 <reg>Murderers</reg>
 </persName>
 </person>
 <person xml:id="emdMac_M_3Murderer">
 <persName>
 <name>A third Murderer, employed by Macbeth</name>
 <reg>3 Murderer</reg>
 </persName>
 </person>
 <person xml:id="emdMac_M_Murderers_Macduff">
 <persName>
 <name>Two Murderers who kill Lady Macduff and her son</name>
 <reg>1 Murderer</reg>
 <reg>2 Murderer</reg>
 </persName>
 </person>
</listPerson>

Special Case: Multiple Character Lists

You might want to have multiple character lists. For example, James Mardock’s edition of Henry V has three lists: one for the English, one for the French, and one for the Chorus who belongs to neither list. Consult with your anthology lead before you create multiple character lists. There have to be compelling editorial reasons for doing so.

In this case, the


                                          <particDesc>

has three child


                                          <listPerson>

elements, each with its own


                                          <head>

element. The following example gives three lists with one truncated


                                          <person>

element in each list. Notice the use of the


                                          <head>

element to name the lists of the English and of the French respectively:

<particDesc>
 <listPerson type="castlist" xml:id="emdH5_FM_castList_01">
 <person xml:id="emdH5_FM_Chorus">
 <persName>
 <name>Chorus</name>
 <reg>Chorus</reg>
 </persName>
 </person>
 </listPerson>
 <listPerson type="castlist" xml:id="emdH5_FM_castList_02">
 <head>The English</head>
 <person xml:id="emdH5_FM_KingHenry">
 <persName>
 <name>King of England, Henry V</name>
 <reg>King Henry</reg>
 </persName>
 </person>
 </listPerson>
 <listPerson type="castlist" xml:id="emdH5_FM_castList_03">
 <head>The French</head>
 <person xml:id="emdH5_FM_FrenchKing">
 <persName>
 <name>King of France, Charles VI</name>
 <reg>French King</reg>
 </persName>
 </person>
 </listPerson>
</particDesc>

Editors of masques and pageants are finding the need to provide a list of speaking characters and a list of non-speaking characters. This example from the edition of Chruso-Thriambos shows two


                                          <listPerson>

elements with headings that differentiate characters who speak from characters who are represented (embodied) in the pageants.

<particDesc>
 <listPerson type="castlist">
 <head>Speaking Characters in the Pageants</head>
 <person xml:id="emdCHRU1_M_Leofstane">
 <persName>
 <name>Leofstane</name>
 <reg>Leofstane</reg>
 </persName>
 <note>
 A goldsmith, thought to be the first mayor of London.
 </note>
 </person>
 </listPerson>
 <listPerson type="castlist">
 <head>Figures Represented in the Pageants</head>
 <person xml:id="emdCHRU1_M_Chrusos">
 <persName>
 <name>Chrusos, or Gold</name>
 </persName>
 <note>
 Allegorical embodiment of the metal.
 </note>
 </person>
 <person xml:id="emdCHRU1_M_Argurion">
 <persName>
 <name>Argurion, or Silver</name>
 </persName>
 <note>
 Allegorical embodiment of the metal.
 </note>
 </person>
 </listPerson>
</particDesc>

Special Case: Standalone Role List Pages

Many editors will want to have a dedicated page for their character list. To create this page:

Create a new file with the name emdABBR_M_roleList (where ABBR is replaced by your edition ID). For information on how to add a new file to the repo, see Practice: Add Files to the Repository.

Add any contextual text that you wish to include in

<p>

elements in the


                                                <body>

of the file.

Add the processing instruction <?roleList ref="emdABBR_M"?> (where ABBR is replaced by you edition ID). For information on this processing instruction, see roleList.

Notes

1.The LEMDO Team is aware that the value "castList" is potentially confusing, given that we use the


                                    <castList>

element in semi-diplomatic transcriptions to encode lists of characters/roles and actors.↑

2.This policy decision on capitalization is designed to ensure that editions with literary divisions that are similar to a character name (e.g., a Chorus who speaks a chorus, a Prologue who speaks a prologue) are disambiguating the xml:id values for division and character in the same way.↑

Prosopography

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

Connor, Francis X., ed. The Second Part of Henry the Fourth. By William Shakespeare. The New Oxford Shakespeare. Ed. Gary Taylor, John Jowett, Terri Bourus, and Gabriel Egan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. 1359–1436. WSB aaag2304.

Craik, T.W., ed. King Henry V. By William Shakespeare. Arden Shakespeare. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. WSB ai7.

Gurr, Andrew, ed. King Henry V. New Cambridge Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992; rpt. 2005. WSB aaq278.

Malone, Edmond, ed. The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare. 10 vols. London: J. Rivingston and Sons, 1790. ESTC T138858.

OED: The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Shakespeare, William. The Chronicle History of Henry the Fifth with his Battle Fought at Agincourt in France. London, 1600. STC 22289. ESTC S111105.

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 Character Lists in Modernized Texts
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.