Internet Shakespeare Editions

Abbreviations

7.1 Abbreviations

We list abbreviations below for titles and terms that appear frequently in ISE pages and editions. If you use other abbreviations in your edition and/or contribution, submit a file that lists the abbreviations you have used, apart from familiar usages such as "ed.," "fol.," "conj.." Remember that the electronic format does not force you to cramp your space, so where it does not involve inelegant repetition or wordiness you can spell items out in full.

7.1.1 Abbreviations for Play Titles

7.1.1.1 Abbreviations for ISE plays

For abbreviated titles of works by Shakespeare, please use the following abbreviations and record them in your list of abbreviations (they are the standard ones listed in the MLA Handbook, listed here as a computer will sort them). Note the additional abbreviations for quartos of multiple texts.

1H4 The First Part of King Henry the Fourth
1H6 The First Part of King Henry the Sixth
2H4 The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth
2H6 The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth
3H6 The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth
Ado Much Ado About Nothing
Ant Antony and Cleopatra
AWW All's Well That Ends Well
AYL As You Like It
Cor Coriolanus
Cym Cymbeline
Edw Edward III
Err The Comedy of Errors
H5 King Henry the Fifth
H8 King Henry the Eighth
Ham Hamlet
JC Julius Caesar
Jn King John
LC A Lover's Complaint
LLL Love's Labour's Lost
Lr King Lear
Luc The Rape of Lucrece
Mac Macbeth
MM Measure for Measure
MND A Midsummer Night's Dream
MV The Merchant of Venice
Oth Othello
Per Pericles
PhT The Phoenix and Turtle
PP The Passionate Pilgrim
R2 King Richard the Second
R3 King Richard the Third
Rom Romeo and Juliet
Shr The Taming of the Shrew
Son Sonnets
STM Sir Thomas More
TGV The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Tim Timon of Athens
Tit Titus Andronicus
Tmp The Tempest
TN Twelfth Night
TNK The Two Noble Kinsmen
Tro Troilus and Cressida
Ven Venus and Adonis
Wiv The Merry Wives of Windsor
WT The Winter's Tale
----- -----
Ham_Q1 Hamlet (Q1)
Ham_Q2 Hamlet (Q2)
Ham_F1 Hamlet (Folio)
Lr_Q1 King Lear (Quarto)
Lr_F1 King Lear (Folio)
Wiv_Q1 The Merry Wives of Windsor (Quarto)
Wiv_F1 The Merry Wives of Windsor (Folio)
Oth_Q1 Othello (Quarto)
Oth_F1 Othello (Folio)
Rom_Q1 Romeo and Juliet (Q1)
Rom_Q2 Romeo and Juliet (Q2)

7.1.1.2. Abbreviations for QME and DRE plays

Plays published by the Queen's Men Editions and Digital Renaissance Editions will each have a short, unique, identifier. As with ISE plays, these can be further identified: in addition to quarto, folio, and modern versions, they may use MS for manuscript.

Plays published to date.

QME

FV The Famous Victories of Henry V
FBFB Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay
Leir The History of King Leir
3L3L The Three Lords and Three Ladies of London
3LL The Three Ladies of London
OWT The Old Wives Tale
TRKJ The Troublesome Reign of King John
TTR3 The True Tragedy of Richard III

DRE

1HW The Honest Whore, Part 1
2HW The Honest Whore, Part 2
AHDM An Humorous Day's Mirth
CoC The Conflict of Conscience
DaP Damon and Pithias
TrWid The Triumphant Widow
EMFMM Englishmen For My Money, or A Woman Will Have Her Will
WoB The Whore of Babylon

7.1.1.3. Other works

Apocrypha

Yrk A Yorkshire Tragedy
Loc The Tragedy of Locrine
Old Sir John Oldcastle
Cro Sir Oliver Cromwell
LP The London Prodigal
Pur The Puritan

Others

For other works and plays not by Shakespeare, abbreviate only if you are referring to them continuously, in which case you should use generally recognized abbreviations, e.g. SMT (Second Maiden's Tragedy), Span. Trag. (The Spanish Tragedy), etc., and list them in the Abbreviations. Remember, however, that in the electronic world you are not limited by space, so can spell works out in full even if you refer to them frequently. Where works are published by the Queen's Men Editions or Digital Renaissance Editions, use the abbreviation for plays in those series in all links even if you use a different form in your introductory materials.

7.1.2. Other common forms of abbreviation

Where possible, follow MLA style. a) Examples of common abbreviations used for in-text citation:

(OED Boggle v. 3) Note that the abbreviations ("n.," "v.," etc.) in OED citations should be italic. (Note also that ISE style prefers a to sb.)
(Dent W241)
(Tilley C696)
(Abbott 334)
(North 306). Book or article with page reference.
(Bullough 2: 122). Book with more than one volume.
Marlowe, I Tamburlaine, Prologue
Ham. 3.3.15 (TLN 2288) [with ilink: (<ilink component="text" href="Ham/EM#tln-2288>TLN 2288</ilink>)]
(Wells, Re-Editing 87). Book where the author has more than one entry in your Bibliograpy.
(Hunter, "Flatcaps," 18-20). Article where the author has more than one entry in your Bibliograpy.
(Textual Introduction 11). Paragraph 11 of your Textual Introduction.
(2 Peter, 3.13).
(Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.640-78)
Use commas in abbreviated references, thus: ." . . in SMT, 3.4.5, it is . . ." (not ." . . in SMT 3.4.5 it is . . .).

b) Recto and verso Recto and verso folios (etc.) should be designated by "r" and "v," using roman, not italic, letters. Thus: fol. 6v.; Sig. A1r.

7.1.3. Abbreviations that need not be listed

Specific

abbreviations you may use (but which are not to be included in the list of abbreviations):

adj. (adjective)
adv. (adverb)
c. (circa)
ch. (chapter)
ed. and edd. (editor, edition; editors, editions)
f. (following page or line)
ff. (following pages or lines)
fol. and fols. (folio, folios)
e.g. (for example) (not to be followed by a comma)
i.e. (id est: that is)
n. (note) Thus: line 63n. line 63n.5
n. (noun) (preferred to sb.)
no. (number)
OED Oxford English Dictionary
SD (stage direction)
SP (speech prefix)
st. (stanza)
UP University Press
v. (verb)
vol. and vols. (volume, volumes)

Do not abbreviate "cited"; do not use v. (for "vide"); where necessary use "see." Do not use sv. Other abbreviations commonly found in OED citations that may be used when quoting such citations include:

ppl., adj., int., pa., pple., vbl., arch., dial., poss., pron., obs., conj., quasi-sb., sig., sigs.

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