<OPENER>

On this Page	Filed elsewhere
Tagging "to the tune of" OPENER and CLOSER as holdalls DATELINE without DATE Complex OPENERs in songs "To the honour of God" as OPENER Complex opening to dedication Where to split HEADs and OPENERs DIV TYPE="ballad"; more on HEADs and OPENERs in songs	"spoken by" as STAGE or OPENER

To the tune of ...

Source: email
Date: 11 Jun 2002
File name: n/a
Vid: n/a
Page ref: n/a
Keywords: OPENER, song

Query. Wasn't sure how to tag "To the tune of The Merry Cuckold" which is at the beginning. It's in P tags, but could also be STAGE?

Answer. Such instructions or comments at the beginning of a song, ballad, etc., we've generally been tagging with the all-purpose OPENER tag, on the grounds that it is a recognizable and conventional opening element of printed ballads (etc.). --pfs

OPENER and CLOSER as holdalls

Source: email
Date: 15 Mar 2002
File name: S1893
Vid: n/a
Page ref: 28
Keywords: OPENER, CLOSER

Query. There is introductory scriptural material to a following prayer. I have followed the vendor by leaving this material as a DIV1 and calling it type introduction as I couldn't find a satisfactory way of incorporating it into the prayer to which it seems to relate.

Answer. [This material consisted of a quotation from Ecclesiastes, a one-sentence paraphrase of it (?); and a cross reference ("see also...") in a different typeface.]

I tagged the whole mess as OPENER: within OPENER, I tagged the quotation and reference to Ecclesiastes as EPIGRAPH, left the paraphrase as simple character data, and treated the cross-reference as a NOTE. OPENERs and CLOSERs can sometimes do duty as general holdalls for "stuff at the top" and "stuff at the bottom" respectively.

DATELINE without DATE

Source: notes file
Date: 15 Apr 2004
File name: Ws5673
Keywords: DATE, DATELINE

Decided to put the date and place of the sermon within <DATELINE>:

<OPENER><DATELINE>Preached at St. <HI>Margarets Westminster</HI>,
Before the Honourable House of COMMONS. <DATE>Octob. 10. 1666.
</DATE></DATELINE></OPENER>

Then came across some sermons without a date, but for consistency captured as:

<OPENER><DATELINE>Preached at Whitehall.</DATELINE></OPENER>

Is it ok to have dateline without a date?

PFS: yes, but I have to admit that we've generally left such stuff in HEAD when it comes to sermons, unless it is physically marked off from the head, partly because it is often inextricably intermingled with HEAD material, partly out of some feeling that indications of place and time typically serve a different function with sermons than they do with (e.g.) letters or reports: in the latter case they are authorial, part of the letter itself, true datelines; in the former case, they are typically editorial: descriptions of the sermon occasion added later, rather than part of the sermon. But I'm not sure that this distinction is one worth making.

Complex OPENERs in songs

Source: notes file
Date: 7 Jun 2004
File name: Wr418
Keywords: OPENER, song

Is there a good way to handle references to song titles/opening lines in OPENER? I wanted to do something like:

<OPENER>To the Tune of an old song, beginning thus
<L>I rode from <HI>England</HI> into <HI>France.</HI></L>
Or to the Tune of Sir <HI>John Sucklings</HI> Ballad.</OPENER>

But <L> and <Q> aren't allowed in <OPENER>. I went for this, which doesn't seem very good:

<OPENER>To the Tune of an old song, beginning thus <HI>I rode from
<HI>England</HI> into <HI>France.</HI></HI> Or to the Tune of Sir
<HI>John Sucklings</HI> Ballad.</OPENER>

PFS: I don't of any good way: you could leave it in HEAD instead of OPENER (HEAD may contain Q); or (a real kludge) you could commit this ugliness, which takes advantage of the fact that HI may contain Q:

<OPENER>To the Tune of an old song, beginning thus <HI><Q>I rode from
<HI>England</HI> into <HI>France.</HI></Q></HI> Or to the Tune of Sir
<HI>John Sucklings</HI> Ballad.</OPENER>

"To the honour of God" as OPENER

Source: notes file
Date: 25 Jul 2003
File name: Ww1048
Keywords: OPENER

An unusual phrase appeared above the title on the first page of the body of the text--well, unusual in its placement. Apex had made it the HEAD of a DIV1 and then had tagged the title as the HEAD of a DIV2. Per pfs, the tagging was changed to the following:

<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB N="1" REF="5">
<OPENER>To the Honour of God.</OPENER>
<HEAD>An Humble APOLOGY For LEARNING And LEARNED MEN.</HEAD>

Complex opening to dedication

Source: notes file
Date: 5 Nov 2004
File name: Wm579
Keywords: dedication, OPENER

I wasn't sure how to handle the opening of the dedication on img 2. There is a list of dedicatees and then an opener. I didn't like to make it one big head, or lose the <OPENER>, so to allow it I left what Apex had done, which is to begin a <LETTER> at this point,even though it's, er, not really a letter and it doesn't begin at this point.

Written down, it doesn't sound very convincing. Anyway, this is what it looks like:

"<HEAD>TO THE Right Worshipful and Worshipful</HEAD>
<LIST>
<LABEL>Timothy Robson, <HI>Esq;</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI> Mayor.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL><HI>Sir</HI> Robert Shafto, <HI>Knight,</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI> Recorder.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL><HI>Sir</HI> Ralph Carr, <HI>Kt. </HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI>Alderman.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL><HI>Sir</HI> Ralph Jennison, <HI>Kt.</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI> Alderman.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL><HI>Sir</HI> Nathanael Johnson, <HI>Kt.</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM> <HI> Alderman.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL>Henry Maddison, <HI>Esq;</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI> Alderman.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL>Henry Brabant, <HI>Esq;</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI> Alderman.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL>Timothy Davison, <HI>Esq;</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI> Alderman.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL>Robert Roddam, <HI>Esq;</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI> Alderman.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL>Matthew Jeffreyson, <HI>Esq; </HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI>Alderman.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL>George Morton, <HI>Esq; </HI></LABEL>
<ITEM> <HI>Alderman.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL>Nicholas Fenwick, <HI>Esq;</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI> Alderman.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL>To John Squire, <HI>Esq;</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM> <HI>Sheriff.</HI></ITEM>
</LIST>
And to the rest of the Common Council of the Town and County
of <HI>Newcastle</HI> upon <HI>Tyne.</HI>
<LETTER>
<OPENER><SALUTE>Right Worshipful and Worshipful,</SALUTE></OPENER>
THis famous Town..."

What should I have done here?

PFS: should?? I don't know. The truth is that documentary materials often strain our tagset. I don't know of any options other than the ones you probably already considered: (1) include the LIST in HEAD (making a huge HEAD); or (2) treat the heading material as a separate DIV. Our guidelines somewhere say to use a DIV of appropriate type when our usual tag doesn't fit. In this case, that is, use DIV TYPE="head".

I.e. choice (1):

<DIV1 TYPE="dedication">
<HEAD>TO THE Right Worshipful and Worshipful
<LIST>
<LABEL>Timothy Robson, <HI>Esq;</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI> Mayor.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL><HI>Sir</HI> Robert Shafto, <HI>Knight,</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI> Recorder.</HI></ITEM>
* * *
</LIST>
And to the rest of the Common Council of the Town and County
of <HI>Newcastle</HI> upon <HI>Tyne.</HI>
</HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>Right Worshipful and Worshipful,</SALUTE></OPENER>
THis famous Town..."

choice (2):

<DIV1 TYPE="dedication">
<DIV2 TYPE="head of dedication">
TO THE Right Worshipful and Worshipful
<LIST>
<LABEL>Timothy Robson, <HI>Esq;</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI> Mayor.</HI></ITEM>
<LABEL><HI>Sir</HI> Robert Shafto, <HI>Knight,</HI></LABEL>
<ITEM><HI> Recorder.</HI></ITEM>
* * *
</LIST>
And to the rest of the Common Council of the Town and County
of <HI>Newcastle</HI> upon <HI>Tyne.</HI>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="body of dedication">
<OPENER><SALUTE>Right Worshipful and Worshipful,</SALUTE></OPENER>
THis famous Town..."

I think I'd go for (2), though not really happily.

Where to split HEADs and OPENERs

Source: notes file
Date: 20 Feb 2004
File name: Wl2936
Keywords: HEAD, OPENER

Wasn't sure about use of <OPENER> at the beginning of the petitions.

PFS: I think I would move more of what you tagged as OPENER into the HEAD, perhaps like this:

<HEAD>To the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of the City of London; and to the Right Worshipful the Aldermen his Brethren, and the Commons in Common-Council Assembled.
The Humble Petition of the several Companies and Societies of the City of London.</HEAD>
<OPENER>Humbly Sheweth,</OPENER>

DIV TYPE="ballad; more on HEADs and OPENERs

Source: notes file
Date: 13 Dec 2006
File name:
Keywords: HEAD, OPENER

<DIV1 TYPE="song">
<PB REF="1" MS="Y">
<HEAD>The kind hearted Creature: <HI>Or</HI></HEAD>
<LG>
<L>The prette&s;t ie&s;t that er'e you knew,</L>
<L>Yet Il'e&s;ay nothing but what is true:</L>
<L>I once heard of a cunning Whore,</L>
<L>But ner'e the like of this before.</L>
</LG>
<DIV2 TYPE="part" N="1">
<HEAD>Tothetune of the Mother beguiled the Daughter:</HEAD>
<FIGURE></FIGURE>
<FIGURE>
</FIGURE>

We usually refer to these things generically as TYPE="ballad"
We usually put the 'tune' statement in OPENER
The tune statement is here being forced into the role of head of the first part by the fact that the verse heading cannot be placed within HEAD. We usually get around this by putting the verse heading (which is often summary in character) into ARGUMENT tags.
Why no spacing in "tothetune of"?

I would revise as follows:

<DIV1 TYPE="ballad">
<PB REF="1" MS="Y">
<HEAD>The kind hearted Creature: </HEAD>
<ARGUMENT>
<HEAD>Or,</HEAD>
<L>The prette&s;t ie&s;t that er'e you knew,</L>
<L>Yet Il'e &s;ay nothing but what is true:</L>
<L>I once heard of a cunning Whore,</L>
<L>But ner'e the like of this before.</L>
</ARGUMENT>
<OPENER>To the tune of the Mother beguiled the Daughter:</OPENER>
<DIV2 TYPE="part" N="1">
<FIGURE></FIGURE>
<FIGURE></FIGURE>