Module 5: Drama

1. Henrik Ibsen: The Wild Duck

The following example is a fragment (the front matter, and pages 102 to 105, belonging to the fifth act) of Henrik Ibsen’s play The Wild Duck, encoded and made available by the University of Virginia Library, for their Text Collection.

The text of the play is preceded by front matter, consisting of a title page, and a table of contents.

The body of the play (<body>) consists of 5 acts, in which no further scenes are discerned. Acts are encoded in <div1> elements, with an "act" value for their @type attributes. The first act is preceded by a character list, encoded in a separate <div1> element, of @type "section". This character list is transcribed as part of the text’s body, in the form of a simple <list>, with role names and descriptions as plain text inside <item> elements. Inside the same <div1> element, the cast list is followed by two paragraphs (<p>). As descriptions of global aspects of the play’s settings, they could have been wrapped in a more expressive <set> element, were they transcribed as part of the text’s <front> part (<set> is only allowed as a child element of <front>). Inside the acts, each speech is marked with <sp>, indicating the speaker as it occurs in the source (<speaker>), without formal reference to the character’s “definition” in the cast list. This link could be provided with a @who attribute on <sp>.

Stage instructions are encoded inside <stage>. The speeches are encoded as prose paragraphs (<p>). Notice, however, how this encoding makes abstraction of physical lines: these are explicitly encoded using the <lb> element.

Besides the regular drama elements, this fragment also contains one footnote, which is transcribed as:

<note place="foot" xml:id="note5">
<seg type="note​-symbol">"Livslognen,"</seg>
<p>literally "the life​-lie."</p>
</note>

right before the corresponding page break (<pb>). From this encoding it is not clear, however, whether this is a transcribed authorial annotation, or an annotation made by the editor; the @resp attribute could have avoided this confusion. Moreover, as it apparently concerns a translation, the contents of the note could have been encoded more semantically as a <term> - <gloss> pair. The note indicator in the running text is encoded as <ref target="#note5">*</ref> where it occurs in the text.

<text xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" xml:id="d1">
<front xml:id="d2">
<titlePage xml:id="d3">
<pb/>
<docTitle>
<titlePart type="main"> T​HE W​ILD D​UCK
<lb/>
T​HE L​EAGUE OF Y​OUTH
<lb/>
R​OSMERSHOLM
<lb/>
By H​ENRIK I​BSEN
<lb/>
</titlePart>
</docTitle>
<docImprint> B​ONI A​ND L​IVERIGHT, I​NC.
<lb/>
P​UBLISHERS — N​EW Y​ORK
<lb/>
Printed in
<lb/>
the United States of America
<lb/>
</docImprint>
</titlePage>
<div1 type="contents" xml:id="d4">
<head> C​ONTENTS</head>
<list>
<item> P​AGE</item>
<lb/>
<item> T​HE W​ILD D​UCK</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT I................. 3</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT II................ 24</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT I​II............... 48</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT IV................ 74</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT V................. 98</item>
<lb/>
<item> T​HE L​EAGUE OF Y​OUTH</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT I................. 123</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT II................ 148</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT I​II............... 178</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT IV................ 199</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT V................. 227</item>
<lb/>
<item> R​OSMERSHOLM</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT I................. 251</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT II................ 278</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT I​II............... 304</item>
<lb/>
<item> A​CT IV................ 326</item>
<lb/>
</list>
</div1>
</front>
<body xml:id="d5">
<div1 type="section" xml:id="d6">
<pb n="2"/>
<head>C​HARACTERS</head>
<list>
<item>W​ERLE, a merchant, manufacturer, etc.</item>
<lb/>
<item>G​REGERS W​ERLE, his son.</item>
<lb/>
<item>O​LD E​KDAL.</item>
<lb/>
<item>H​IALMAR E​KDAL, his son, a photographer.</item>
<lb/>
<item>G​INA E​KDAL, Hjalmar​'s wife.</item>
<lb/>
<item>H​EDVIG, their daughter, a girl of fourteen.</item>
<lb/>
<item>M​RS. S​ORBY, Werle​'s housekeeper.</item>
<lb/>
<item>R​ELLING, a doctor.</item>
<lb/>
<item>M​OLVIK, student of theology.</item>
<lb/>
<item>G​RABERG, Werle​'s bookkeeper.</item>
<lb/>
<item>P​ETTERSEN, Werle​'s servant.</item>
<lb/>
<item>J​ENSEN, a hired waiter.</item>
<lb/>
<item>A F​LABBY G​ENTLEMAN.</item>
<lb/>
<item>A T​HIN-HAIRED G​ENTLEMAN.</item>
<lb/>
<item>A S​HORT-SIGHTED G​ENTLEMAN.</item>
<lb/>
<item>S​IX O​THER G​ENTLEMEN, guests at Werle​'s dinner​-party.</item>
<lb/>
<item>S​EVERAL H​IRED W​AITERS.</item>
<lb/>
</list>
<p>The first act passes in W​ERLE'S house, the remaining acts at H​JALMAR E​KDAL'S. </p>
<p> Pronunciation of Names: G​REGERS W​ERLE = Grayghers Verle; H​IALMAR E​KDAL = Yalmar Aykdal; G​INA = Cheena; G​RABERG = Groberg; J​ENSEN = Yensen. </p>
</div1>
<!-- ... -->
<div1 type="act" n="5" xml:id="d11">
<pb n="98"/>
<head>A​CT F​IFTH</head>
<!-- ... -->
<sp>
<speaker>Relling.</speaker>
<p> Well, you see, I​'m supposed to be a sort of a doctor — save the mark! I can​'t but give a hand to the poor sick folk who live under the same roof with me.
<pb n="102"/>
</p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers.</speaker>
<p> Oh, indeed! Hialmar Ekdal is sick too, is he! </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Relling.</speaker>
<p> Most people are, worse luck. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers.</speaker>
<p> And what remedy are you applying in Hialmar​'s case? </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Relling.</speaker>
<p> My usual one. I am cultivating the life​-illusion
<ref target="#note5">*</ref>
in him. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers.</speaker>
<p> Life​-illusion? I didn​'t catch what you said. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Relling.</speaker>
<p> Yes, I said illusion. For illusion, you know, is the stimulating principle. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers.</speaker>
<p> May I ask with what illusion Hialmar is inoculated? </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Relling.</speaker>
<p> No, thank you; I don​'t betray professional secrets to quacksalvers. You would probably go and muddle his case still more than you have already. But my method is infallible. I have applied it to Molvik as well. I have made him "daemonic." That​'s the blister I have to put on his neck. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers.</speaker>
<p> Is he not really daemonic then? </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Relling.</speaker>
<p> What the devil do you mean by daemonic! It​'s only a piece of gibberish I​'ve invented to keep up a spark of life in him. But for that, the poor harmless creature would have succumbed to self​-contempt and despair many a long year ago. And then the old lieutenant! But he has hit upon his own cure, you see. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers.</speaker>
<p> Lieutenant Ekdal? What of him? </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Relling.</speaker>
<p> Just think of the old bear​-hunter shutting himself up in that dark garret to shoot rabbits! I tell you there is not a happier sportsman in the world than that old man pottering about in there among all that rubbish. The four or five withered Christmas​-trees he has saved up are the same to him as the whole great fresh Hoidal forest; the cock and the hens are big game​-birds in the fir​-tops; and the rabbits that flop about the garret floor are the bears *
<note place="foot" xml:id="note5">
<seg type="note​-symbol">"Livslognen,"</seg>
<p>literally "the life​-lie."</p>
</note>
<pb n="103"/>
he has to battle with — the mighty hunter of the mountains! </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers.</speaker>
<p> Poor unfortunate old man! Yes; he has indeed had to narrow the ideals of his youth. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Relling.</speaker>
<p> While I think of it, Mr. Werle, junior — don​'t use that foreign word: ideals. We have the excellent native word: lies. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers.</speaker>
<p> Do you think the two things are related? </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Relling.</speaker>
<p> Yes, just about as closely as typhus and putrid fever. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers.</speaker>
<p> Dr. Relling, I shall not give up the struggle until I have rescued Hialmar from your clutches! </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Relling.</speaker>
<p> So much the worse for him. Rob the average man of his life​-illusion, and you rob him of his happiness at the same stroke.
<stage> (To H​EDVIG, who comes in from the sitting​-room.)</stage>
Well, little wild​-duck​-mother, I​'m just going down to see whether papa is still lying meditating upon that wonderful invention of his.</p>
</sp>
<stage> [Goes out by passage door.</stage>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers</speaker>
<stage> (approaches H​EDVIG).</stage>
<p> I can see by your face that you have not yet done it. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hedvig.</speaker>
<p> What? Oh, that about the wild duck! No. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers.</speaker>
<p> I suppose your courage failed when the time came. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hedvig.</speaker>
<p> No, that wasn​'t it. But when I awoke this morning and remembered what we had been talking about, it seemed so strange. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers.</speaker>
<p> Strange? </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hedvig.</speaker>
<p> Yes, I don​'t know — Yesterday evening, at the moment, I thought there was something so delightful about it; but since I have slept and thought of it again, it somehow doesn​'t seem worth while. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers.</speaker>
<p> Ah, I thought you could not have grown up quite unharmed in this house. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hedvig.</speaker>
<p> I don​'t care about that, if only father would come up — </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Gregers.</speaker>
<p> Oh, if only your eyes had been opened to that
<pb n="104"/>
which gives life its value — if you possessed the true, joyous, fearless spirit of sacrifice, you would soon see how he would come up to you. — But I believe in you still, Hedvig.</p>
</sp>
<stage>
<p> [He goes out by the passage door. H​EDVIG wanders about the room for a time; she is on the point of going into the kitchen when a knock is heard at the garret door. H​EDVIG goes over and opens it a little; old E​KDAL comes out; she pushes the door to again.</p>
</stage>
<sp>
<speaker>Ekdal.</speaker>
<p> H​'m, it​'s not much fun to take one​'s morning walk alone. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hedvig.</speaker>
<p> Wouldn​'t you like to go shooting, grandfather? </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Ekdal.</speaker>
<p> It​'s not the weather for it to​-day. It​'s so dark there, you can scarcely see where you​'re going. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hedvig.</speaker>
<p> Do you never want to shoot anything besides the rabbits? </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Ekdal.</speaker>
<p> Do you think the rabbits aren​'t good enough? </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hedvig.</speaker>
<p> Yes, but what about the wild duck? </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Ekdal.</speaker>
<p> Ho​-ho! are you afraid I shall shoot your wild duck? Never in the world. Never. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hedvig.</speaker>
<p> No, I suppose you couldn​'t; they say it​'s very difficult to shoot wild ducks. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Ekdal.</speaker>
<p> Couldn​'t! Should rather think I could. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hedvig.</speaker>
<p> How would you set about it, grandfather? — I don​'t mean with my wild duck, but with others? </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Ekdal.</speaker>
<p> I should take care to shoot them in the breast, you know; that​'s the surest place. And then you must shoot against the feathers, you see — not the way of the feathers. </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hedvig.</speaker>
<p> Do they die then, grandfather? </p>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Ekdal.</speaker>
<p> Yes, they die right enough — when you shoot properly. — Well, I must go and brush up a bit. H​'m — understand — h​'m.</p>
</sp>
<stage> [Goes into his room.</stage>
<stage>
<p> [H​EDVIG waits a little, glances towards the sitting​-room door, goes over to the book​-case, stands on tip​-toe, takes the double​-barrelled pistol down
<pb n="105"/>
from the shelf, and looks at it. G​INA, with brush and duster, comes from the sitting​-room. H​EDVIG hastily lays down the pistol, unobserved.</p>
</stage>
<!-- ... -->
</div1>
</body>
</text>
Example 1. Adapted from a TEI P4 encoding of Henrik Ibsen’s play The Wild Duck (Ibsen, 1918). TEI XML source available from https://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=modern_english/uvaGenText/tei/IbsWild.xml;raw=1.

Bibliography