Template:RQ:Shakespeare Hamlet Q1-2/documentation

Usage

This template may be used in Wiktionary entries to format quotations from the two earliest known versions of William Shakespeare's work Hamlet (1st quarto, 1603; and 2nd quarto, 1604 and 1605). It can be used to create a link to online versions of the work at the Internet Archive:

• The First Quarto (1603) – considered a “bad quarto” with text corruptions.
• The Second Quarto (this template uses a 1604 version).

Parameters

The template takes the following parameters:

• |version= – mandatory in some cases: use |version=Q2 to quote from the Second Quarto. For the First Quarto, either use |version=Q1 or omit the parameter.
• |1= or |act= – mandatory: the act number of the play quoted from in uppercase Roman numerals.
• |2= or |scene= – mandatory: the scene number of the play quoted from in lowercase Roman numerals. As the works do not have act and scene numbers, look up the act and scene numbers from a modern edition of the play.
• |page= – mandatory in some cases: as the work is unpaginated, specify the "page number" assigned by the Internet Archive to the URL of the webpage to be linked to. For example, if the URL is https://archive.org/details/bib_fict_4117279/page/n12/mode/1up in the 2nd quarto, specify |page=12. This parameter must be specified to have the template link to an online version of the work.
• |sig= or |signature=, and |verso= – these parameters can be used to specify the signature number quoted from, which is indicated at the bottom centre of some pages. If quoting from a verso (left-hand) page specify |verso=1 or |verso=yes; if |verso= is omitted, the template indicates that a recto (right-hand) page is quoted.
  • If a signature number is not indicated on a page, extrapolate it from the signature numbers before and after the page and enclose it in brackets using [ and ] For example, if the previous signature number is A3 and the next one is B, specify the missing signature number as |sig=[A4]: see the example below.
  • If quoting a range of signatures, for example, "signatures B, verso – B2, recto", use |sig= or |signature=, and |verso=, to specify the signature at the start of the range, and |sigend= or |signatureend=, and |versoend=, (if required) to specify the signature at the end of the range.
  • If this parameter is omitted, the template links the URL of the online version of the work to the act and scene numbers.
• |line= or |lines= – the line number(s) to be quoted, from a modern edition of the play.
• |3=, |text=, or |passage= – the passage to be quoted.
• |4=, |t=, or |translation= – a translation of the passage into contemporary English.
• |footer= – a comment about the passage quoted.
• |brackets= – use |brackets=on to surround a quotation with brackets. This indicates that the quotation either contains a mere mention of a term (for example, "some people find the word manoeuvre hard to spell") rather than an actual use of it (for example, "we need to manoeuvre carefully to avoid causing upset"), or does not provide an actual instance of a term but provides information about related terms.

Examples

First Quarto; signature not specified

• Wikitext:
  • {{RQ:Shakespeare Hamlet Q1-2|act=III|scene=i|page=31|passage=If thou doſt marry, Ile giue thee / This plague to thy dovvry: / Be thou as chaſte as [[yce]], as pure as ſnovve, / Thou ſhalt not ſcape '''calumny''', to a Nunnery goe.}}
  • {{RQ:Shakespeare Hamlet Q1-2|III|i|page=31|If thou doſt marry, Ile giue thee / This plague to thy dovvry: / Be thou as chaſte as [[yce]], as pure as ſnovve, / Thou ſhalt not ſcape '''calumny''', to a Nunnery goe.}}; or
• Result:
  • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and Iohn Trundell, published 1603, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

    If thou doſt marry, Ile giue thee / This plague to thy dovvry: / Be thou as chaſte as yce, as pure as ſnovve, / Thou ſhalt not ſcape calumny, to a Nunnery goe.

Second Quarto; signature specified

• Wikitext: {{RQ:Shakespeare Hamlet Q1-2|version=Q2|act=IV|scene=vii|sig=[L4]|verso=1|page=91|passage=[T]hat vve vvould doe / VVe ſhould doe vvhen vve vvould: for this vvould changes, / And hath abatements and delayes as many, / As there are tongues, are hands, are accedents, / And then this ſhould is like a '''ſpend thrift'''s ſigh, / That hurts by eaſing; {{...}}}}
• Result:
  • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii], signature [L4], verso:

    [T]hat vve vvould doe / VVe ſhould doe vvhen vve vvould: for this vvould changes, / And hath abatements and delayes as many, / As there are tongues, are hands, are accedents, / And then this ſhould is like a ſpend thrifts ſigh, / That hurts by eaſing; […]

See also

• {{RQ:Shakespeare Hamlet}} – to quote the version of the play published in the First Folio (1623)