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  • 0. Introduction to Text Encoding and the TEI
  • 1. Common Structure and Elements
  • 2. The TEI header
  • 3. Prose
  • 4. Poetry
  • 5. Drama
  • 6. Primary Sources
  • 7. Critical Editing
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  • 1. Common Structure and Elements
  • 2. The TEI header
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  • 4. Poetry
  • 5. Drama
  • 6. Primary Sources
  • 7. Critical Editing
  • 8. Customising TEI, ODD, Roma
• Exercises
  • 0. Introduction to Text Encoding and the TEI
  • 1. Common Structure and Elements
  • 2. The TEI header
  • 3. Prose
  • 4. Poetry
  • 5. Drama
  • 6. Primary Sources
  • 7. Critical Editing
  • 8. Customising TEI, ODD, Roma
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1. Emily Dickinson: “Faith is a Fine Invention” #

The following example is a critical edition of Emily Dickinson’s poem “Faith is a Fine Invention,” encoded and made available by the University of Maryland University Libraries.

In this example, 7 different versions of a 4-line poem are encoded using the parallel segmentation method. Each apparatus entry (<app>) contains different <rdg> elements documenting the variants occurring in the different text versions. Notice how the choice for equal <rdg> elements (instead of one “preferred” reading, encoded in a <lem> element), and the use of the parallel segmentation method abolish the notion of a base text.

The different witnesses are listed in a <listWit> element inside the <front> section of the text. Each witness definition inside <witness> marks its corresponding sigil in an @xml:id attribute. In the final line, a page break is recorded with <pb>. Its @ed attribute is used to identify the specific edition where this page breaks occurs: the text witness identified as l1894. Notice, how this could have been expressed even more formally with the @edRef attribute, which takes a pointer to an edition identified elsewhere: <pb facs="#image1" edRef="#l1894"/>. For this page in that edition, a digital facsimile is provided by means of the global @facs attribute.

2. Christopher Marlowe: Edward II #

The following example is a fragment of a critical edition of Christopher Marlowe’s play Edward II, encoded and made available by the Perseus Digital Library.

This example illustrates the critical encoding of a drama work. The <variantEncoding> element in the TEI header specifies that an internal, parallel segmented apparatus is used for the encoding of textual variation. The (many) text witnesses that are included in the edition are identified in a <listWit> section in the front matter of the edition. Although more detailed information is lacking (the header section of the original file is rather incomplete, and hence left out from this example), the location of the witness definitions in the front matter may suggest that this critical edition has been digitised from an existing print original. Each witness is described in a <witness> element and provided with an @xml:id attribute specifying the sigil that will be used in the edition to refer to this text witness. One subgroup of text witnesses is identified in a nesting <listWit> element: the "D" sigil will be used to refer to both Dyce editions collectively.

Using a parallel segmented apparatus, the actual text contains all invariant text that is shared among all witnesses, while the variants are captured in <app> elements at the exact places where they occur.

Although a full description of this edition is not available, this example can illustrate what information can be inferred from a parallel segmented apparatus. First, the notion of a base text seems to have been adopted for this edition, as can be gathered from the use of <lem> elements. Without more information, however, it is impossible to tell what text witness has been adopted as base text, because most <lem> element don’t have any @wit information. Moreover, those lemmas with explicit sigla in a @wit attribute contradict each other: some refer to witness Q2, others to Q4. Some <app> elements don’t have a <lem> reading: this may either be a mistake, or suggest that this variant does not occur in the base text (but then, the occurrence of empty <rdg> elements would suggest that empty <lem> elements would be used in these cases). Apparently, only those text witnesses whose text differs from that of the base text have been recorded in @wit attributes of the concerned <rdg> elements. One apparatus entry contains two groups of readings:

The grouping reading suggests that all text witnesses have the “yong” variant, except for the Ox, R, and Q3 witnesses. Its embedded <app> element then seems to tacitly adopt the reading of the Ox and R witnesses (“you”) as lemma, while this reading is entirely missing from the Q3 witness.

Bibliography

• Dickinson, Emily. 1891. “Faith is a Fine Invention.” In Poems by Emily Dickinson, Volume 2. Edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas W. S. Higginson. Encoded and made available by the University of Maryland University Libraries, as sample for the Versioning Machine. Available online at https://v-machine.org/samples/faith.html.
• Marlowe, Christopher. Edward II. 1594. Encoded and made available by the Perseus Digital Library. Available online at https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.03.0007.