Lineation in Modernized Texts

Rationale

The modernized text does not aim to prescribe the layout of text on the page: prose passages may wrap to fit a user’s screen. The editor’s task in the modernized text is, rather, to encode sections of text truthfully with the <l> (line), <p> (paragraph), and occasionally <lg> (line group) elements.

Practice: Encode Lineation

LEMDO uses three elements to tag lineation in modernized texts: <p> for prose speeches, <l> for each verse line, and <lg> for passages of verse lines that constitute a song, sonnet, or other literary form that is more structured than blank verse or sporadically rhymed verse.
To encode a prose speech, wrap the speech in the <p> element.
To encode a verse speech, wrap each verse line in the <l> element. Note that most verse speeches do not require the <lg> element; wrapping each line in <l> suffices unless you are tagging specific literary forms.
To encode literary forms such as songs and sonnets, wrap the section of text that you wish to tag in the <lg> element. You must still wrap each child verse line in the <l> element.

Special Case: Line Groups

LEMDO allows you to use the <lg> element to tag a number of literary forms. You must use the <lg> element to tag the following literary forms:
Sonnets, tagged using the "sonnet" value on the @type attribute
Quatrains, tagged using the "quatrain" value on the @type attribute
Verse letters, tagged using the "verseLetter" value on the @type attribute
Songs, tagged using the "song" value on the @type attribute
For more information on encoding verse letters and songs, see Encode Letters and Songs in Modernized Texts.
In addition to the required tagging on these literary forms, you have the option to wrap rhyming couplets or triplets in the <lg> element, using the @type attribute and the values "couplet" or "triplet". Consult with your Anthology Lead about whether or not your anthology is tagging couplets and triplets. You will also want to be aware of rhymes in early modern English pronunciation. See Appendix I in David Crystal’s Pronouncing Shakespeare.
Note that you can nest <lg> elements. You may tag an entire sonnet with an <lg> element and then tag the quatrains and couplet within the sonnet with child <lg> elements.

Examples

<lg type="couplet">
  <l>Never was a tale of more woe</l>
  <l>Than that of Juliet and her Romeo.</l>
</lg>

Special Case: Shared Verse Lines

Verse lines usually have ten beats in iambic pentameter. Some have an eleventh unstressed syllable (a feminine ending, which has nothing to do with modern gender).
If a single line of verse is spoken by two or more speakers, we consider it a shared verse line.
Every part of a shared line is wrapped in its own <l> element. Add the @part attribute to the <l> element on each part of a shared line. Add the appropriate value as follows:
Line Part Value
Initial "I"
Medial "M"
Final "F"
Note that while you are only allowed to use the "I" (Initial) and "F" (Final) values once per shared verse line, you are permitted to use as many "M" (Medial) values as are required.
LEMDO indents medial parts of shared lines five rems and indents final parts 10 rems.
For an example of a properly encoded shared verse line, see this exchange in Henry V:
<sp>
  <speaker>Exeter</speaker>
  <l part="I">Not here in presence.</l>
</sp> <sp>
  <speaker>King Henry</speaker>
  <l part="F">Send for him, good uncle.</l>
</sp>

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.

Sam Seaberg

Samuel Seaberg, a University of Victoria English undergrad, enjoys riding his bike. During the summer of 2025, he began working with LEMDO as a recipient of the Valerie Kuehne Undergraduate Research Award (VKURA). Unfortunately, due to his summer being spent primarily in working to establish an edition of Thomas Heywood’s If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody, Part 2 and consequently working out how to represent multi-text works in a digital space, his bike has suffered severely of sheltered seclusion from the sun.

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

Crystal, David. Pronouncing Shakespeare: The Globe Experiment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. WSB aaq125.

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 Lineation 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.