Library of Formatting Examples:Metrical Drama/04A

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Correctly-formatted text

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HEBBEL'S PLAYS[*** Book title: major division.]
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GYGES AND HIS RING[*** Play title: major division.]
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ACT I[*** Act = chapter: major division.]
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<sc>Scene 1</sc>[*** Scene = section, already spaced.]

<i>A Hall</i>

/#[*** Hanging indent. Mark with block quote.]
<i>Enter</i> <sc>Kandules</sc> <i>and</i> <sc>Gyges</sc>. <sc>Kandules</sc> <i>buckles
on his sword</i>. <sc>Thoas</sc> <i>follows with the diadem</i>.
#/

/*
<sc>Kandules.</sc> To-day you'll see what Lydia can achieve!
I know you Grecians, though your necks are bended,
Just for your standstill plight bear the old yoke
With gnashing teeth and lip-curl at your lords.
No thing on earth were easily invented
You were not quick to better, were't alone
The crown you add, you set it on--and lo,
The thing's your work, you see that it is good!
*/

/*
[<sc>Thoas</sc> <i>hands him the diadem</i>.
*/

/*
Bring the new diadem! What use is this?
Has your dolt's hand the sword as well mistaken?
*/

/*
[<i>Looks at his sword.</i>
*/

/*
Why yes, by Herakles whose feast we're holding!
What, Thoas, are you doddering ere your time?

<sc>Thoas.</sc> I thought----

<sc>Kan.</sc>                 Well, what?

<sc>Thoas.</sc>                           Not for five hundred years
Has King in other trapping graced the games
Your Ancestor, the Puissant, has stablished,
And when, the feast before, you made endeavour
To oust the hallowed things from olden honour,
The folk stood rooted, horrified, amazed,
Muttering as ne'er before.
*/

Major divisions

This page has major divisions that require four/two spacing, a new scene, stage directions, and deeply indented dialogue lines.

Stage directions

For right-justified stage directions, the Formatting Guidelines require right-aligned text to be left-justified and surrounded by no-wrap tags. Use one set of no-wrap tags around the verse and a separate set around such stage directions. (As shown elsewhere, normal stage directions are wrappable, but often will need to be surrounded by block quote tags.) Some post-processors will request other approaches, so please review each project's comments and discussion.

Indented dialogue

As with all metrical drama, no-wrap the dialogue. The period after a speaker's name goes inside the tags. When dialogue lines up with the end of the previous line, it shows interruption or immediate transition. To format with proper alignment, do the alignments first and add the markups afterwards. italics require some extra spacing, but small caps do not. The physical constraints of paper width prevented the final transition from being properly aligned in the image, but we can (and should) align it here.

Plain text output

Below is how a portion of the markup above will appear in plain text, showing how nicely the transitions line up.

Why yes, by Herakles whose feast we're holding!
What, Thoas, are you doddering ere your time?

THOAS. I thought----

KAN.                 Well, what?

THOAS.                           Not for five hundred years
Has King in other trapping graced the games
Your Ancestor, the Puissant, has stablished,
And when, the feast before, you made endeavour
To oust the hallowed things from olden honour,
The folk stood rooted, horrified, amazed,
Muttering as ne'er before.

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