Encode Stage Directions in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions

Rationale

LEMDO treats stage directions as a quasi-paratextual feature of the text and as a function of the mise-en-page. We encode the type of stage direction using the @type attribute in anticipation of a day when we will be able to generate a database of stage directions. We capture the placement of the stage direction on the page using the @place attribute so that we can render the stage direction in a similar place to where it appears in the early modern playbook.

Step-by-Step

Wrap the stage direction in the <stage> element. Include any terminal punctuation.
Add the @type attribute and choose one or more values.
Add the @place to describe where the stage direction appears on the compositorial page.
Add the @rendition attribute if necessary.

Practice: Encode @type Values

Stage directions provide information about what happens on stage, where the scene takes place, time of day, character relationships, status, and much more. LEMDO has created a list of allowed values on the @type attribute to specify the function of the stage direction.
To encode @type values, first read through the entire stage direction and parse out the functions of any component parts. Next, add a @type attribute and select the relevant value(s) from the dropdown menu in Oxygen. Many stage directions are simple and need only one value on the @type attribute. Some stage directions are more complicated and need multiple @type values. If a stage direction in your file is more complex and needs multiple values, type the first value followed by a space and then a second value, and so on (i.e., @type="value1 value2 value3").
LEMDO has built upon the TEI definitions for @type values and expanded them based on our project-specific needs for working with early modern dramatic works. See the table below for detailed information on each @type value in the LEMDO project:
Value LEMDO Definition
"entrance" Marks the entrance of one or more characters.
"exit" Marks the exit of one or more characters.
"remain" Indicates that one or more characters remains on stage when others exit. Old IML value was usually other. This is a LEMDO project-specific value.
"business" Describes stage business and character actions like kneeling. Do not use this value for stage directions marked in the playbook as dumbshows.
"dumbShow" Describes a non-verbal series of actions (a dumb show). LEMDO follows the OED (3rd edition) definition of this historically specific term: Esp. in English drama of the 16th and 17th centuries: a part of a play acted in mime to summarize, supplement, or comment on the main action. Later also more generally: any dramatic performance in mime (dumb show n.2.). This is a LEMDO project-specific value.
"delivery" Describes how or to whom a character speaks, normally onstage but allowed for offstage stage directions (e.g., they cry within).
"sound" Describes a sound such as flourish, music, thunder, a shot, drums, whistle, whether the sound is made onstage or offstage.
"setting" Describes a setting (e.g., in her bed, a council chamber). Do not use this value to describe a location on the stage.
"location" Describes a location on stage (e.g., above or at one door). Do not use this value to describe a setting. Do not assign a location that is not required by early modern stage direction or implied by a dialogic stage direction.
Our dropdown menu in Oxygen also allows "optional" and "other" as values on the @type attribute. However, these are legacy values that we are depricating. Do not use these values. Instead, use the more specific values as outlined in the table above.

Practice: Encode Placement

To describe the placement of a stage direction on the page, add a @place attribute with a value from LEMDO’s placement taxonomy. Consult with your anthology lead to determine if your anthology is using generic (e.g., "plc-top") or specific (e.g., "plc-left-top") placement values.
Read more about the placement taxonomy and see pages annotated with examples of @place values in Placement Taxonomy.

Special Case: Stage Directions Inside Speeches

If a stage direction is inside a speech and on the same compositorial line as a line of the speech, tag it with <stage> as usual. If the stage direction has parentheses around it, type the parentheses and include them inside the <stage> element.1
Do not add an <lb> unless the stage direction is on its own line within the speech.
Use the @place attribute to indicate the location of the stage direction on the line as you typically would.

Special Case: Encode Marginal Stage Directions

If your source playbook has marginal stage directions, follow these steps:
Wrap the stage direction in the <stage> element.
Put the @type attribute on <stage> following the directions in Practice: Encode @type Values.
Put the @place attribute on <stage> with either the value "plc-left-margin" (if the stage direction is in the left margin) or "plc-right-margin" (if the stage direction is in the right margin).
Add <lb> elements at the start of each line. The first <lb> element should be before the opening <stage> tag. See Special Case: Encode Lines in Marginal Stage Directions.
To learn about how marginal stage directions will render, see Special Case: Renditions for Marginal Stage Directions.

Special Case: Speech Prefixes and Stage Directions

Occasionally, stage directions do the work of speech prefixes. Stage directions and speech prefixes are both typically italicized, and information in the stage direction can indicate which character speaks the following speech. When this occurs, encode the speech prefix/stage direction as just a stage direction. Wrap the entire text node in a <stage> element. Encode @type and @place as usual.
<lb/> <sp>
  <ab>
    <stage type="business" place="plc-centre">Imogen reads.</stage>
    <lb/>He is one of the Noblest note, to whose kindnesses I am most in<pc force="weak">-</pc>
    <lb/>finitely tied. Reflect vpon him accordingly, as you value your <lb/>trust. Leonatus. </ab>
</sp>
Note that there is no <speaker> element. The stage direction gives enough information about the speech to not need a <speaker> tag.

Rendering

Our generic stylesheet for semi-diplomatic transcriptions automatically renders all stage directions in italic font. Some stage directions in your playbook may be entirely or partially composed in roman font. If your anthology wants you to capture font features such as italic fonts, follow the steps outlined below.
If your stage direction is entirely in roman font:
Add the @rendition attribute on your <stage> element.
Give a value of "rnd:normal" to the @rendition attribute.
If your stage direction is partly in roman font:
Wrap the text that appears in roman font in the <hi> element.
Add the @rendition attribute on your <hi> element.
Give a value of "rnd:normal" to the @rendition attribute.
To learn more about our stylesheet for semi-diplomatic transcriptions, see Default Style in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions.

Examples

Example of the final exit in a scene, placed on its own line and aligned right. The first letter of Exeunt is not italicized.
<lb type="wln" n="632"/> <stage type="exit" place="plc-right-inline">
  <hi rendition="rnd:normal">E</hi>xeunt. </stage>
Example of a stage direction centered on a new compositorial line.
<sp>
  <speaker>Bacon.</speaker>
  <ab> Oh gro<g ref="lig:longS_longS">ss</g>e dunce. <lb type="wln" n="551"/>
    <stage type="business" place="plc-centre"> Here beate him. </stage>
  </ab>
</sp>
Example of a stage direction aligned right on the same compositorial line as the last line of the speech.
<lb type="wln" n="171"/> <sp>
  <speaker>Lacie.</speaker>
  <ab> God <g ref="g:longS">s</g>end your honour your harts de<g ref="lig:longS_i">si</g>re. </ab>
</sp> <stage type="exit" place="plc-right-inline"> Exeunt. </stage>
Example of a stage direction with multiple @type values:
<stage type="business exit remain">Citizens steale away. Manet Sicin. & Brutus.</stage>
Even though this is a relatively short stage direction, there are three different @type values.
Example of a marginal stage direction:
<lb/> <stage type="business" place="plc-right-margin"> Then hee <lb/>reades. </stage>

Notes

1.Note for editors: When you turn to your modernized text, you will not add parentheses to intra-speech stage directions. Our processor will add them for you at rendering time.↑

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 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.

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 Stage Directions in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions
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.