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Source: email
Date: 6 Jun 2002
File name: n/a
Vid: n/a
Page ref: n/a
Keywords: LETTER, Q, marginal quotes
Query. In the text that I am currently working on, there are many letters quoted throughout the text, captured as LETTERs. Sometimes these are also indicated by marginal quotes, but I took out any startq and endqs within them as I thought that LETTER covers their Q status, and also you can't have <Q><LETTER>. I only realised after I had done this (Doh!!) that I could have done <LETTER><Q>.
Do I have to look through the text for examples of this, or is the fact that they are within LETTERs enough?
Answer. I think your original instincts were right. Since LETTER is simply a shortcut for <Q>(<TEXT><BODY><DIV1 TYPE="letter">), to include another Q tag within LETTER would be extraneous--even wrong, since it would suggest that the LETTER was quoting something, not that the letter was itself being quoted. A better argument could be made, I think, for preserving the marginal quotes by means of <HI REND="marginal quots">, since the letters with marginal quots are for some reason or other distinguished from the letters without marginal quots. HI indicates that without specifying why. But unless you can see a pattern indicating a real difference between the "quoted" letters and the "unquoted" letters, one worth preserving, I suggest that you NOT go back and restore the removed startqs/endqs. It would be a lot of work for a very dubious gain.
Source: notes file
Date: 30 Aug 2002
File name: Wh3656
Keywords: LETTER, marginal quotes, NOTE
On ref 218 - 220 there is a letter quoted. Halfway through there is a comment on the contents, then the letter resumes. The letter sections are marked with marginal quotes. At the moment the whole thing is in LETTER and the bits that were highlighted with marginal quotes are in Q tags. This seemed better than breaking it into two letters. You might want to look at the tagging though.
PFS: this instinct seems right, but the solution doesn't: to mark the highlighted bits as Q implies that the quoted letter is itself quoting something else. I can think of only two solutions that leave the integrity of the letter intact: mark the *unmarked* paragraph with HI, or tag the paragraph as a NOTE PLACE="inline" (which according to the TEI is for notes that occupy a paragraph forming part of the main text). Either will parse; the HI solution will probably display better online.
Source: notes file
Date: 17 Sep 2003
File name: Wp1142
Keywords: LETTER, OPENER, ARGUMENT
The <letter> has a heading, then (in verse) some lines saying where it is to be sent to, then another heading. I wasn't sure how to tag this. You can't put <L> within <OPENER>. I used <ARGUMENT>, but it isn't strictly an argument either.
PFS: bearing in mind that <LETTER> is simply a shortcut for <Q><TEXT><BODY><DIV1 TYPE="letter">, and that therefore it, like other <DIV1>s, can contain <DIV2>s, I tagged as below -- a bit clumsy but it works, and captures the fact that the first heading actually applies only to the 'superscription', not to the letter as a whole:
<LETTER>
<DIV2 TYPE="superscription">
<PB N="125" REF="67">
<HEAD>THE SUPER-SCRIPTION.</HEAD>
<P>THESE</P>
<L>To Sir <HI>Pendragon</HI> be convey'd,</L>
<L>At the next Door to <HI>Godfrey</HI>'s Head,</L>
<L>In <HI>Upper Old-bourn,</HI> toward St. <HI>Giles,</HI></L>
<L>Where there be Two or Three <HI>Turn-Stiles,</HI></L>
<L>Deliver,</L>
<L>With a Parcel ty'd,</L>
<L>Carriage paid and satisfi'd.</L>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="body of letter">
<HEAD>The LETTER.</HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>SIR,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<LG>
<L>AFter hearty Commendations</L>
<L>Tender'd to you and your Relations;</L>
Source: notes file
Date: 5 Nov 2004
File name: S845.take2
Keywords: LETTER, interpolation
The opening of the letter on img 2 has what looks to me like an editorial comment: "The superscription". I stuck it in the beginning of <OPENER> in <HI>s, followed by an <LB>:
"<DIV1 TYPE="letter"><PB REF="2">
<HEAD>¶Here folowe the priours letters
taken oute of his owne hande worde for worde.</HEAD>
<OPENER><HI>¶The superscription.</HI><LB>
To our most Reuerend father in Christ and spe|cial
good lorde my lorde of lyncoll our dyo|cesan
be this deliuerd with spede.</OPENER>
<P>_MOst Reuerend father..."
Is there a better way of doing this?
PFS: well, there are *other* ways to do it. I'm not sure that any of them are better. We have always had a problem with editorial notes to letters indicating various attachments, e.g. at the end 'with seal on dorso' or 'addressed to the bishop of London'. Within the limits of our tag set, I can think of only a few alternatives:
(1) Treat the letter and the DIV containing the letter as distinct and attach the note to the former, like this:
"<DIV1 TYPE="letter"><PB REF="2">
<HEAD>¶Here folowe the priours letters
taken oute of his owne hande worde for worde.</HEAD>
<P><HI>¶The superscription.</HI> <Q>To our most Reuerend
father in Christ and spe|cial good lorde my lorde of
lyncoll our dyo|cesan be this deliuerd with spede.</Q></P>
<LETTER>
<OPENER><SALUTE>_MOst Reuerend father</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>
(2) Treat the superscription note *as* a note:
"<DIV1 TYPE="letter"><PB REF="2">
<HEAD>¶Here folowe the priours letters
taken oute of his owne hande worde for worde.
<NOTE PLACE="inter">¶The superscription.
<Q>To our most Reuerend father in Christ and spe|cial
good lorde my lorde of lyncoll our dyo|cesan
be this deliuerd with spede.</Q></NOTE></HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>_MOst Reuerend father...</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>"
(3) Treat only the 'superscription' designation as a note:
"<DIV1 TYPE="letter"><PB REF="2">
<HEAD>¶Here folowe the priours letters
taken oute of his owne hande worde for worde.</HEAD>
<OPENER><NOTE PLACE="inline">¶The superscription.</NOTE>
To our most Reuerend father in Christ and spe|cial
good lorde my lorde of lyncoll our dyo|cesan
be this deliuerd with spede.
<SALUTE>_MOst Reuerend father...</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>
The last is not much different from yours. I do not feel strongly enough about any of these choices to warrant changing what you have already done.