Remediate Letters and Songs

Remediating letters and songs is slightly different than encoding them, but letters and songs are remediated the same way. Read about Encode Letters and Songs in Modernized Texts.
Both letters and songs are effectively interruptions to the unfolding dialogue, read (or sung) by a speaker. When remediating, you must delete the mode tags after you have confirmed prose and verse have been tagged correctly (i.e., with <p> and <l> ) by the conversion. Read about Remediate Modernized Texts.
If the letter or song is verse, ensure it is wrapped in an <lg> tag to indicate that the letter or song constitutes a verse unit. If the letter is prose, ensure it is wrapped in a <p> element to indicate that the letter constitutes a prose or paragraph-like unit. (Treat songs as verse, regardless of line length or apparent meter.)
When encoding letters and songs, you must distinguish the two by adding the appropriate value to the @type attribute on either the <p> or <lg> element. For example, you would wrap the lines of a verse letter in the <lg> element with the @type attribute and the value "verseLetter". For songs, use "song", and for prose letters, use "proseLetter".
Often, the letter or song is interrupted by interlineal commentary from the speaker. In these cases, we use multiple <lg> or <p> elements to demarcate the pieces of the letter or song. Add the @xml:id, @next, and @prev attributes to these elements to connect the pieces to each other. See also Encode Split Elements.

Remediate Letters

Sometimes a character will read a letter or other document onstage. We want to distinguish the text the character is reading from the surrounding dialogue.
Do not use quotation tags (i.e. <quote> , <q> , etc.) to tag text that a character is reading from a document. Read the documentation on Introduction to Quotations, Terms, Expressions, Glosses, Emphasis, and Foreign Languages if there are quotations in the letter.
You will encounter both prose and verse letters. If you are encoding a prose letter, add the @type attribute to the <p> element wrapping the character’s speech and add the "proseLetter" value.
If you are encoding a verse letter, add the @type attribute to the <lg> element wrapping the verse and add the "verseLetter" value.
Example of a verse letter:
<div>
<!-- ... -->

  <lg type="verseLetter">
    <l>Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love;</l>
    <l>And thou, thrice-crownèd Queen of Night, survey</l>
    <l>With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above,</l>
    <l>Thy huntress’ name that my full life doth sway.</l>
    <l>O Rosalind! These trees shall be my books,</l>
    <l>And in their barks my thoughts I’ll character,</l>
    <l>That every eye which in this forest looks</l>
    <l>Shall see thy virtue witnessed everywhere.</l>
    <l>Run, run, Orlando, carve on every tree</l>
    <l>The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.</l>
  </lg>
  <!-- ... -->
</div>

Remediate Letters Interrupted by Prose

Letters will often be interrupted by interlineal commentary from the speaker. To link the fragments of the letter together, add @next and @prev attributes to either <p> or <lg> , depending on whether the letter is in prose or verse. See also Encode Split Elements.
In the case of verse letters like the one below, add the <lg> element before every fragment of the letter to indicate it is part of a larger piece of verse.
Conversion yields:
<div>
<!-- ... -->

  <speaker>Rosalind</speaker>
  <lg>
    <l>She Phoebes me. Mark how the tyrant writes.</l>
    <l>
      <stage type="business">(Read)</stage>
      <milestone unit="nonstructural" type="mode" subtype="verse"/>
      <quote type="verse">Art thou god to shepherd turned, That a maiden’s heart hath burned?</quote>
      <milestone unit="nonstructural" type="mode" subtype="end"/>
    </l>
    <l>Can a woman rail thus?</l>
  </lg>
  <speaker>Silvius</speaker>
  <lg>
    <l>Call you this railing?</l>
  </lg>
  <milestone unit="nonstructural" type="mode" subtype="verse"/>
  <speaker>Rosalind</speaker>
  <lg>
    <l>
      <stage type="business">(Read)</stage>
      <quote type="verse">Why, thy godhead laid apart, Warr’st thou with a woman’s heart?</quote>
    </l>
  </lg>
  <milestone unit="nonstructural" type="mode" subtype="end"/>
  <l>Did you ever hear such railing?</l>
  <milestone unit="nonstructural" type="mode" subtype="verse"/>
  <lg>
    <quote type="verse">Whiles the eye of man did woo me, That could do no vengeance to me.</quote>
  </lg>
  <milestone unit="nonstructural" type="mode" subtype="end"/>
  <!-- ... -->
</div>
Amend to:
<div>
<!-- ... -->

  <sp who="#emdAYL_M_Rosalind">
    <speaker>Rosalind</speaker>
    <l>She Phoebes me. Mark how the tyrant writes.</l>
    <stage type="business">(Read)</stage>
    <lg type="verseLetter" xml:id="emdAYL_M_lg_1" next="#emdAYL_M_lg_2">
      <l>Art thou god to shepherd turned,</l>
      <l>That a maiden’s heart hath burned?</l>
    </lg>
    <l>Can a woman rail thus?</l>
  </sp>
  <sp who="#emdAYL_M_Silvius">
    <speaker>Silvius</speaker>
    <l>Call you this railing?</l>
  </sp>
  <sp who="#emdAYL_M_Rosalind">
    <speaker>Rosalind</speaker>
    <stage type="business">(Read)</stage>
    <lg type="verseLetter" xml:id="emdAYL_M_lg_2" prev="#emdAYL_M_lg_1" next="#emdAYL_M_lg_3">
      <l>Why, thy godhead laid apart,</l>
      <l>Warr’st thou with a woman’s heart?</l>
    </lg>
    <l>Did you ever hear such railing?</l>
    <lg type="verseLetter" xml:id="emdAYL_M_lg_3" prev="#emdAYL_M_lg_2" next="#emdAYL_M_lg_4">
      <l>Whiles the eye of man did woo me,</l>
      <l>That could do no vengeance to me.</l>
    </lg>
    <!-- ... -->
  </sp>
</div>

Remediate Songs

Wrap the groups of lines that make up the song in an <lg> element. Add the @type attribute to the <lg> element wrapping the song and add the "song" value.
Do not tag songs with quotation tags (i.e. <quote> , <q> , etc.) unless the character is quoting someone.
<div>
<!-- ... -->

  <stage type="delivery">Singing</stage>
  <lg type="song">
    <l>Do nothing but eat and make good cheer,</l>
    <l>And praise god for the merry year,</l>
    <l>When flesh is cheap and females dear,</l>
    <l>And lusty lads roam here and there</l>
    <l>So merrily,</l>
    <l>And ever among so merrily.</l>
  </lg>
  <!-- ... -->
</div>

Remediate Songs Interrupted by Prose

You may encounter songs that are interrupted by commentary. To link the fragments of the song together, add @next and @prev attributes to the <lg> element wrapping the lines of the song.
The example below shows not only the use of @next and @prev to link the fragments of the song together, but also the use of the @part attribute and corresponding values on <p> to link the fragments of prose together.
Conversion Yields:
<div>
<!-- ... -->

  <speaker>Falstaff</speaker>
  <stage type="delivery">
    <supplied>Singing</supplied>
  </stage>
  <lg>
    <l>When Arthur first in court,</l>
  </lg>
  <p>—empty the jordan!—</p>
  <lg>
    <l>and <lb type="tln" n="1063"/>was a worthy king</l>
  </lg>
  <p>—how now, Mistress Doll?</p>
  <!-- ... -->
</div>
Amend to:
<sp who="#emd2H4_M_Falstaff">
  <speaker>Falstaff</speaker>
  <stage type="delivery"> Singing </stage>
  <lg type="song" xml:id="emd2H4_M_l_21" next="#emd2H4_M_l_22">
    <l>When Arthur first in court,</l>
  </lg>
  <p part="I">—empty the jordan!—</p>
  <lg type="song" xml:id="emd2H4_M_l_22" prev="#emd2H4_M_l_21">
    <l>And <lb type="tln" n="1063"/>was a worthy king</l>
  </lg>
  <p part="F">—how now, Mistress Doll?</p>
</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.

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.

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 Remediate Letters and Songs
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.