TNI (immaterial textual notes) faq
For expansion of sigla (codes for editions), refer to bibliography of editions; e.g. v1877 = the Furness variorum ed.
Not all lines have a TNI file because some editors do not change Q2’s “immaterial” variants (as we define the term). We ignore standard usage in Q2, such as v for u; ô for O, etc.
Q2 lemmata are all followed by a bracket; occasionally, we collate an additional word from F1 or elsewhere; brackets do not follow such addition. See, e.g., TNI 443.
The notes in TNI documents do not include, for the most part, capitalization, italicizing of proper names, spelling and other features that editions routinely modernize. Folios in general capitalize nouns more freely than do quartos. Early eighteenth-century publishers also tend to capitalize nouns. We also exclude in TNI the speech prefixes that some editors emend or expand (full names instead of shortened forms), but our introductory description of editions often contains information about such helpful features.
We have tried to include at least some immaterial variants that have inherent interest, such as the move from an absence of punctuation to commas, semi-colons, colons, periods, and, sometimes, back to no punctuation. Since editors consider Q2’s punctuation careless, we think some users might be interested in seeing when the immediately following editions (Q3, Q4, Q5) do and do not follow its punctuation.
Ellipses (. . . ) in the strings of some TNI variants generally mean that missing editions followed the punctuation of HUD3; at a later point, because some editions varied from HUD3, we started recording the variants again.
Following New Variorum guidelines,* we use Through-Line-Numbers as in the Norton First Folio, by permission.
* hamletworks.org is not vetted by the MLA or the general editors of the New Variorum Shakespeare; it contains the raw material from which the editors of hamletworks.org have been shaping their submissions to the general editors for publication by MLA in the New Variorum Hamlet. We base most of our style choices on directions in the New Variorum Handbook, available on the MLA website. See Introductory explanations.
Click here for more information about browsing the entries and here for more information about the special symbols used in Hamletworks. Click the question mark icon above to remove this help message.