Encode Glosses

Identifies a phrase or word used to provide a gloss or definition for some other word or phrase.
You will use the <gloss> element mainly in your critical paratexts and the annotation file keyed to your modernized text. Generally, you will tag only your own in-line glosses with the <gloss> element. If a gloss has an external source (a dictionary, another editor), use the <quote> element. Dictionaries provide glosses and explanations. However, we use the <quote> element to give credit to the dictionary. Quotations from the dictionary are almost always glosses on the headword in the dictionary, but from LEMDO’s perspective, they are quotations first and foremost. The need to give credit where credit is due with the <quote> element takes precedence over describing the content of the quotation as a gloss.

Rendering Note

When rendered, text tagged with the <gloss> element will be wrapped in quotation marks. The opening quotation mark will appear in place of the opening <gloss> tag and the closing quotation mark will appear in place of the closing </gloss> tag. If you do not wish for quotation marks to appear in the final output of your text, do not use the <gloss> element.

Examples

Glossing Terms or Phrases

<note type="commentary">
<!-- ... -->
Various adjectival meanings are also possible: <gloss>disposed to rebel against God</gloss>; <gloss>keenly desirous of the suffering or misfortune of others</gloss>; or, as an extension of the image of <term>medicinal gum</term> derived from trees, <gloss>evil in nature and effects; of plants, etc.: poisonous</gloss>
  <!-- ... -->
</note>
A note on Oth by Jessica Slights containing a term and glosses.
<note type="commentary">
<!-- ... -->
Oliver means <gloss>in whose presence you are</gloss>, but Orlando, in his reply in the next line, sardonically employs a literal meaning <!-- ... --></note>
A note on AYL by David Bevington, with in-line glosses to help the reader.
<note type="commentary">
<!-- ... -->
Iago continues his attack on traditional models of service a few lines later when he uses the phrase <quote>Do themselves homage</quote> to mean <gloss>serve themselves</gloss>
  <!-- ... -->
</note>
A note on Oth by Jessica Slights, with in-line glosses to help the reader.
<note type="commentary">
<!-- ... -->

  <gloss>I make this request neither to gratify my lust, nor so that I may fulfill with erotic intensity the raw passions aroused in the performance of consummating my marriage, but rather to generously support Desdemona’s wishes</gloss>
  <!-- ... -->
</note>
A long gloss by Jessica Slights on a difficult passage in Oth.

Quoting from a Dictionary

If you are quoting a gloss from a dictionary, use <quote> rather than <gloss> (because the principle of giving credit where credit is due takes precedence over identifying the content of the quotation):
<note type="commentary">
<!-- ... -->
Technically, both the Shakespearean passage here and the Kyd demonstrate the characteristic feature of <term>sorites</term>, in which <quote>the predicate of each proposition is the subject of the next</quote> (<title level="m">OED</title> 1) <!-- ... --></note>
A note on AYL by David Bevington.

Self-Glossing

The <gloss> element will be rare in the modernized text, but there are cases where a character provides glosses on their own words in a speech while speaking it.
<sp>
<!-- ... -->

  <speaker>Touchstone</speaker>
  <p>He, sir, that must marry this woman. Therefore, you clown, abandon—which is in the vulgar <gloss>leave</gloss>—the society—which in the boorish is <gloss>company</gloss>—of this female—which in the common is <gloss>woman</gloss>; which together is: abandon the society of this female, or, clown, thou perishest; or, to thy better understanding, diest;</p>
  <!-- ... -->
</sp>
This passage contains in-line glossing.

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.

Nicole Vatcher

Technical Documentation Writer, 2020–2022. Nicole Vatcher completed her BA (Hons.) in English at the University of Victoria in 2021. Her primary research focus was women’s writing in the modernist period.

Rylyn Christensen

Rylyn Christensen is an English major at the University of Victoria.

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 Glosses
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.