Para1The primary challenge of encoding the genre of civic pageantry is that there are no established encoding practices. Therefore, this scholarly digital edition of Civitatis Amor uses LEMDO’s TEI-XML customization for early modern drama to provide a basis for encoding this civic pageant, even though plays and civic pageants have stark differences.

Para2The secondary challenge of encoding civic pageantry is dealing with overlapping hierarchies. TEI-XML markup is inherently hierarchical and requires clear relationships between the encoded pieces of the texts. Civic pageants contain narrative prose, dialogic exchanges, and paratextual material that coexist within the same sections. Civitatis Amor must be understood both in its mise–en–page and in its content to approach these conflicting hierarchies.

Para3Every encoding decision takes the modern senior undergraduate and scholarly reader into account to make this civic pageant a teachable, navigable, and intuitive resource. The approach taken for encoding the semi-diplomatic transcription¹ of Q1 of Civitatis Amor aims to remain as truthful to the copytext as possible. Q1 includes blocks of text that act as headings and/or labels, while their contents often reflect that of stage directions. In the semi-diplomatic transcription, these labels are encoded in a minimally interpretive way by not making any claims about their potential work as stage directions. Headings are a subset of label, encoded as <label type="heading">. The prose and narrative sections are denoted with anonymous block <ab> which acts as a container for phrase or inter level elements analogous to, but without the same constraints as, a paragraph (TEI element <ab> ). Individual line beginnings are indicated with <lb> , and the speech element <sp> is wrapped around characters’ speeches. In the modern text, I still aim to be truthful in my encoding while I also make certain critical claims about the text. Through the encoding, we can clarify crucial generic differences between plays performed on stages and civic pageants that move across the city of London.

Para4The most critically significant encoding intervention in this modern text is the use of the <stage> element to encode some of the content that was tagged with the <label> element in the semi-diplomatic transcription. In these cases, the text node is effectively a stage direction, in that it provides paratextual performance information.

Para5To meet the challenge of encoding civic pageants, I have adapted LEMDO’s approaches to encoding stage directions for early modern drama. For example, in The Entertainment by Water at Chelsea and Whitehall, the first line is At Chelsea. At Chelsea is paratextual information, or even redundant, because the narrative prose on the previous page tells us that his grace’s first entertainment…was near Chelsea (A4r). While At Chelsea was encoded as a <label> in the semi-diplomatic transcription, this modern text opts to encode At Chelsea as a stage direction with the @type attribute that then specifies the value of "location". LEMDO rarely uses the "location" value on a stage element because "location" as they define it occurs very infrequently. According to the LEMDO Documentation encode stage directions in semi-diplomatic texts, "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. (LEMDO Team, Encode Stage Directions in Semi-Diplomatic Texts)

But civic pageantry does not take place on a playhouse stage; rather, the settings are real-life London locations. Therefore, I envisioned a definition for <stage type="location"> to include civic pageantry:

describes a location of the performance space either on stage (e.g., above or at one door) or at a physical location in the case of outdoor performances (e.g., At Chelsea). Do not use this value to describe a setting (use <stage type="setting">); rather use this value to note imagined or real locations.

While in the semi-diplomatic transcription At Chelsea is encoded with the <label> element to indicate a hands-off approach, in the modern text At Chelsea is encoded as <stage type="location"> to make a claim about the intended location of performance. This encoding decision changes the meaning of At Chelsea from an ambiguous block of text that merely notes where the entertainment was meant to occur to a stage direction that gives information about the expected physical location of the forthcoming speeches by London and Neptune.

Para6This edition standardizes the use of the colon as the terminal punctuation for stage directions when the direction ends with follows, speaks, or answers, so that the stage direction flows seamlessly as paratext to the following dialogue.

Para7Q1 makes liberal use of the <label> element, but, as with the example of the <stage> element, the modern text invites more specific critical choices. Allegorical characters’ names in Q1 appear centred above the speech by that character, and function as speaker prefixes but are encoded as <label> in the semi-diplomatic transcription. In the modern text, these character names are standardized as <speaker> when they appear before their respective speeches. To clarify the speaker for the modern reader, I used the <supplied> element three times to add speaker names when Q1 leaves them out. In other cases, these labels turn into stage directions when they are written in the present tense (e.g., Neptune gives action toward Thamesis, and speaks:) and provide paratextual readerly information about the ensuing dialogic exchanges (i.e., they offer information to the reader that a spectator would have seen).

Para8Q1 records the names of important men who attended the installation and accompanying celebrations. The modern edition opts to wrap these names in a <list> element and encode each one as an <item> ; the text node is given consistent formatting to standardize to the modern way of presenting a list item with an internal heading (e.g., Grayes Inne, Maister Wadding. Maister St-John becomes Gray’s Inn: Master Wadding, Master St. John).