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Sample transcriptions below. (Please note: These are large files, which may cause a delay if using a slower connection.)
The objective of the ballad archive project is to provide a three-pronged access to early modern ballads: via facsimile reproductions, facsimile transcriptions, and XML encodings. By “facsimile transcriptions,” we mean facsimile reproductions of all the ornament of the ballads (pictures and border woodcuts), but with a conversion of the older (usually black-letter) font into modern roman font. Thus, in looking at a facsimile transcription, the viewer will be able to get a very good impression of what the ballad originally looked like while at the same time be able to read the text with ease. A readable print-out of the ballads would also thus be producable for inclusion in class readers. Below are the rules adopted by the ballad team for transcribing black letter to roman font.
Rules for Transcription
1) Capitalization and punctuation are left unchanged
2) Spellings are retained, with the following exceptions:
- “long s” becomes “s”
- “u ” becomes “v” when it is meant to stand in place of a “v”
- “i” becomes “j” and “I” is rendered as “J” when they are meant to stand in place of a “j” or “J”
- “vv” is changed to “w”and “uu ” to w
- dipthongs are modernized to “ae” and “oe”
- “ée” (with an accent over the first e) is typed simply “ee”
- abbreviations are typed out in full: e.g. “&c” is written as “etc.”; “y” followed by a raised “e ” is typed as “thee ”; “y” followed by a raised “t” is typed as “that”; “comand” (with a line above the "o"), is typed as “command,” etc.
- "=" is rendered as a hyphen when it is being used as such
- But “viz “ is typed out as “viz ” and “&” remains “&” (not “and”)
- Inverted, dropped, or misplaced letters are corrected
- "qd." is spelled out "quod"
- However, "Esq." is not spelled out as "Esquire" as it is still recognizable today
3) Spacing is retained when it indicates indentations for new stanzas, for certain lines of the stanzas, and for refrains, but
- cramped or large spaces between words are not imitated; these are typed normally
- when a last word of a line is printed above or below the line with a “( “ or “[ “ placed in front of it, the whole line is placed on the same line of print.
Hard to decipher words and phrases:
- If a section of the print is blurred, blotched, or faded, but is still somewhat discernable, and if the obscured letters can be logically deduced based on the context of the text (or by consulting a Rollins transcription of the ballad or a transcription of another version of the ballad in the Roxburghe edition or by consulting other facsimiles in EEBO or ECCO), the transcriber simply makes the transcription without drawing attention to the problematic area
- But if the original text is so faded or blotched as to be undiscernable (that is, there is no trace of letters for this part of the text), even if the transcriber can make a good guess as to the missing text based on the methods listed above, the words should be placed within square brackets, [like this]
- And if some word or phrase clearly existed in the text but is entirely missing from the text (i.e., the page is torn or the ink not visible), and the transcriber cannot make out what that text might be (based on the methods listed above), that fact is rendered simply by [?]
Font:
In transcribing from black-letter to roman font:
- If the title or imprint is not in black letter (they are often in roman font), we type the words in roman italics; any italics within the typing are then rendered in bold italics
- If a word or phrase appears in the ballad in the original in roman font, it is also rendered in italics. Be aware: place names, personal names, and the imprint in the original ballad are usually in roman font.
Pepys 1.122-123r The vnnaturall Wife:/ Or,/ The lamentable Murther, of one goodman Dauis, Locke-/ Smith in Tutle-streete, who was stabbed to death by his Wife,/ on the 29. of Iune, 1628. For which fact, She was Araigned,/ Condemned, and Adiudged. to be Burnt to Death in/ Smithfield, the 12. Iuly 1628.
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Facsimile Transcription |
Pepys 1.530-531 The Skilfull Doctor of Glocester-shire;/ OR,/ A New way to take Physick./ This Ditty doth concern a Country Farmer,/ Who lay with his maid, not thinking to harm her,/ But she, poor Wench, was by her master vild,/ First tempt to sin, and after got with Child:/ But by the Doctors skill, her honest Dame,/ Excus'd her Husband, and sav'd her maid from blame;/ The Doctor he hath medicines in store,/ To Cure all sorts of folks, both rich and poor.
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Facsimile Transcription |
Pepys 2.56 THE / Noble Mans Generous Kindness, / OR, / The Country-Mans Unexpected Happiness. / Giving a true Account of a Nobleman, who taking notice of the Poor / Man's Industrious Care and pains for the maintaining of his Charge, which was seven small Children, meeting him upon / a day, Discoursed with him, and inviting him and his Wife, with his Children, home to his House, and accordingly bestow-/ed upon him a farm of Thirty Acres of Land, to be continued to him and his Heirs for ever.
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Facsimile Transcription |
Pepys 2.75 The Bedford-shire VVidow; / OR, / The Poor in Distress Reliev'd, / Being a full and true Relation, of a poor Widow, whose Hus-/band was dead, and she turn'd out of doors by her Creditors, and forced with / her three Children to lye in the street, and Beg for Bread; and how that Queen Mary, walking in her / Garden, and hearing her Beg, came to her, and caused her children to be cloathed and put to Nurse, / and gave the poor widow a weekly pension, to maintain her as long as she liv'd.
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Facsimile Transcription |
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