LEMDO: Encode Quotations

Encode Quotations

LEMDO uses the


                                       <quote>

element to identify material that is quoted from an external source or from other parts of a single edition. We also use the


                                       <quote>

element to tag reported or quoted speech in the modernized text (but see also Encode Quotation Marks for a few edge cases in which we use the

<q>

element). You will not need to use the


                                       <quote>

element in your semi-diplomatic transcription because you will type the quotation marks (in those rare cases where the text includes typographical quotation marks) just as you would type any other punctuation mark.

Practice: Encode Quotations in Modernized Texts

Use the


                                          <quote>

element in modernized texts when one character quotes another character (e.g., reported speech). If the quotation is more than one line long, you will need to link the


                                          <quote>

elements together using the


                                       @next

and


                                       @prev

attributes. See instructions for using


                                       @next

and


                                       @prev

in Encode Split Elements. You do not need to tag songs with


                                          <quote>

elements. Read more about how LEMDO treats songs in Encode Letters and Songs in Modernized Texts. Sometimes characters misquote famous quotations, for comic effect or otherwise. Read more about encoding misquotations in Practice: Encode Misquotations.

Examples: Quotes in Modernized Texts

In this example from AYL, the First Lord quotes Jaques:

<sp>
 <speaker>First Lord</speaker>



 <l>
 <quote>Poor deer</quote>, quoth he, <quote>thou mak’st a testament</quote>
 </l>
 
</sp>

LEMDO rendering: Poor deer, quoth he, thou mak’st a testament.

In this example from AHDM, Foyes quotes Martia:

<sp>
 <speaker>Foyes</speaker>
 
 <quote>Single, indeed</quote>: that’s a pretty toy!
</sp>

LEMDO rendering: Single, indeed: that’s a pretty toy!

Practice: Encode Quotations in Critical Paratexts and Annotations

Use the


                                          <quote>

element in critical paratexts and annotations to identify material quoted from an external source (secondary sources, previous editions, early texts) or from another part of your edition. LEMDO prioritizes giving credit where credit is due, so all material quoted from an external source must be tagged with


                                          <quote>

even if a more specific tag would suit it (e.g.,


                                          <gloss>

Examples: Quotes in Critical Paratexts and Annotations

This example from the general introduction to James Mardock’s edition of H5 quotes the modernized text:

<quote>Small time</quote>, says the play’s epilogue, <quote>but in that small most greatly lived / This star of England</quote> (<ptr type="localCit" target="doc:emdH5_FM#emdH5_FM_anc_6054 doc:emdH5_FM#emdH5_FM_anc_6057"/>).

LEMDO rendering: Small time, says the play’s epilogue, but in that small most greatly lived / This star of England (Epilogue Sp1).

This example from the annotations for AYL quotes the modernized text in one of its commentary notes:

<note type="commentary">The wordplay on <quote>mortal</quote> accentuates the chop-logic of Touchstone’s sententious conclusion</note>

LEMDO rendering: The wordplay on mortal accentuates the chop-logic of Touchstone’s sententious conclusion.

This example from the annotations for 1 Honest Whore quotes an OED definition for a phrase (note that although this quote could be encoded using the


                                             <gloss>

element, LEMDO uses the


                                             <quote>

element to give credit where it is due):

<note type="gloss">
 <term>To take wet</term> = <quote>to be injured by damp</quote> (<ref type="bibl" target="bibl:OEDT2">
 <title level="m">OED</title>
 <term>wet</term>, n.1.4</ref>).</note>

LEMDO rendering: To take wet = to be injured by damp (OED wet, n.1.4).

Practice: Encode Quotation Marks around Requests for Clarification

If a character asks another character about a word or phrase they just said, tag it with


                                          <quote>

. In the first example, we are not even sure that ducdame is a word, so tagging it with


                                          <term>

would be dishonest.

Examples: Quotation Marks around Requests for Clarification

In this example from AYL, Amiens quotes a word from Jaques’ song:

<sp>
<speaker>Amiens</speaker>
What’s that <quote>ducdame</quote>?
</sp>

LEMDO rendering: What’s that ducdame?

In this example from AYL, Audrey quotes the word that Touchstone has just used:

<sp>
<speaker>Audrey</speaker>
I do not know what <quote>poetical</quote> is. 
</sp>

LEMDO rendering: I do not know what poetical is.

In this example from AYL, Jaques quotes the word that Amiens has just used:

<sp>
<speaker>Jaques</speaker>
 Call you ’em <quote>stanzos</quote>?
</sp>

LEMDO rendering: Call you ’em stanzos?

Practice: Encode Letters and Poems

Do not use the


                                          <quote>

element when a speaker reads a letter or poem. Instead, use the


                                       @type

attribute on

<p>

(for a prose letter) or


                                          <lg>

(for a poem or verse letter) and the appropriate value. Read about how LEMDO treats letters and songs in Encode Letters and Songs in Modernized Texts.

Practice: Encode Rhetorical Play

Do not use the


                                          <quote>

element when a character is repeating a word in the service of rhetorical play where the rhetorical device is a device of repetition across dialogue (e.g., epizeuxis, stichomythia, gradatio, etc.). Rhetorical play is not quotation.

Foreign Quotations

Quotations in foreign languages (i.e., languages other than the main language of the text, which is assumed to be English unless you specify otherwise) are treated as quotations first. See Encode Foreign Languages more more information.

Practice: Encode Misquotations

If a character misquotes a phrase or passage attributed by the narrator or author to some agency external to the text, it should still be tagged with


                                          <quote>

Examples: Misquotations

In this example from 2H4, Falstaff misquotes Caesar:

<sp>
 <speaker>Falstaff</speaker>
  I may justly say with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome, <quote>there cousin, I came, saw, and overcame.</quote>
 
</sp>

LEMDO rendering: I may justly say with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome, there cousin, I came, saw, and overcame.

In this example from AYL, Rosalind misquotes the same quote:

<sp>
 <speaker>Rosalind</speaker>
 There was never anything so sudden but the fight of two rams and Caesar’s thrasonical brag of <quote>I came, saw, and overcame.</quote>
 
</sp>

LEMDO rendering: There was never anything so sudden but the fight of two rams and Caesar’s thrasonical brag of I came, saw, overcame.

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 Beatrice 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.

Bibliography

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

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 Quotations
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.