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HOW TO USE THE SWORD
How do I find out the sources of a play?
- Choose ‘Plays’ from the SWORD front page. Using the alphabet in the frame above, select the play’s title.
- A list of sources will appear on the right. The label "(perhaps)" appears before sources that may have been used, but about which there is some uncertainty. Sources without this label are believed with certainty to have been used.
- At the bottom of the list, labelled "REFERENCE", is the secondary work from which the list of sources was been taken.
- Clicking another letter above will list additional plays. Clicking "reset" above will clear the frames.
- Click 'Back' to return to the SWORD front page.
How do I find the books a particular playwright used during his career?
- Choose ‘PLAYWRIGHTS’ from the SWORD front page. Using the alphabet in the frame above, select the playwright's name.
- A list of all the source texts that may have been used by the playwright will appear on the right. The label "(perhaps)" appears before sources that may have been used, but about which there is some uncertainty. The label "(authorship question)" appears before sources that were used for a play about which the playwright's authorship is not certain.
- Clicking another letter above will list additional playwrights. Clicking "reset" above will clear the frames.
- Click 'Back' to return to the SWORD front page.
How do I find out how many plays were inspired by a particular source text?
- Choose ‘SOURCES’ from the SWORD front page. Using the alphabet in the frame above, select a source (they are alphabetized by author's surname; anonymous texts are listed by title).
- A list of plays derived from the source will appear on the right. The label "(perhaps)" appears before plays that may derive from the source, but about which there is some uncertainty. Plays without this label are believed with certainty to derive from the selected source.
- Clicking on the titles of plays in the right-hand window will take you to the snyoptic treatment of the play.
- Clicking another letter above will list additional sources. Clicking "reset" above will clear the frames.
- Click 'Back' to return to the SWORD front page.
What are the rules about the SWORD's representation of the titles of sources?
- Language of title: The titles of sources are rendered in their original language unless the playwright has been shown to have used a specific translation. The only exceptions are Greek texts (because the Greek alphabet causes problems in some web browsers); Greek texts have therefore been listed by an English title provided by the relevant Loeb edition.
- English sources are represented by the title assigned to them by the English STC catalogue. The spelling and punctuation have been modernized.
- French sources are represented by the title assigned to them in Alexandre Cioranescu’s Bibliographie de la Littérature Française.
- Classical sources are represented by the title assigned to them in the relevant Loeb edition.
- Other sources (Spanish, German, Neo-Latin, etc.) are represented by the titles given them by the secondary work that suggested them as a source.
What are the rules about the SWORD's representation of the dates of sources?
- Unless otherwise specified, the date attached to a source is the date it was first printed. Thus, The Decameron was written in the mid-1300s, but its given date in the SWORD is 1471, the year the first printed edition was published. Where there might be confusion about this, the abbreviation f.pr. (meaning ‘first printed’) has been placed before the date.
- If the playwright is known to have used a specific edition, the date of that edition is listed after the date of first publication: e.g., Holinshed, Raphael. The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1577). 1587 edtn.
- If the source existed only in manuscript when the play that used it was written, the date of composition is sometimes given instead; if so, the abbreviation wr. (meaning ‘written’). E.g. Geoffrey of Monmouth. Historia Regum Brittaniae (MS., wr. C12).
- No attempt has been made to supply dates for classical texts.
- The dates of plays are normally the date of first performance, not of publication, since it was of course possible for a playwright to see a play without reading it. Performance dates are taken from the CORD’s main list of titles and it must be remembered that they are often speculative.
Why does the SWORD sometimes fail to give precise information about which section of the source was used?
- The secondary works consulted during the compilation of the SWORD differ in the usefulness of the information they give. If a secondary work refers the reader to a specific chapter, section, or page of a source, then that information has been supplied in the SWORD. But if, as is often the case, the secondary work simply refers the reader to a book without giving further details, then only that information appears in the SWORD.
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