[Next project] The Maid of Sker, by R. D. Blackmore

[David]

I've been toying with this one for a while, but have decided to tackle it: by all accounts, The Maid of Sker was Blackmore's own favourite from among his works.

• PG transcription: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/46156
• HathiTrust scans: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010800079

From a quick rummage, it doesn't look like there's much in the way of formatting to worry about in this one (I could be wrong!), so only the moderate ~210k words to contend with.

Hope this looks okay to be getting on with!

David / Fife, UK

[David]

And as I post that, I have a question already. The book has a Greek epigraph on the title page. It looks like this:

Of course, it is riddled with errors. It seems to roughly correspond with the 1603 edition of Theognis's Elegiac Poems (which it is citing, lines 601-2), but it can't even get that right. The 19th and 20th century (and 21st, for that matter) versions look like this (see e.g. Wikisource):

    ἔρρε, θεοῖσίν τ' ἐχθρὲ καὶ ἀνθρώποισιν ἄπιστε,

    ψυχρὸν ὃς ἐν κόλπῳ ποικίλον εἶχες ὄφιν.

I'm attaching a PDF with more info, in case that helps. But do we do the equivalent of "modernize-spelling" on this? It goes against the grain simply to reproduce the title page version (and the PG transcription has further botches on top of that!).

Thanks! D.

[Alex Cabal]

If you're referring to the various accents, etc., I believe the way
Greek breathing marks/accents were written has changed since that era so
it's no surprise they're slightly different.

We don't expect anyone to have to correct non-English issues. If you
think there's a more correct transcription of the same phrase then you
can include it.

On 9/25/24 9:47 AM, David wrote:
> And as I post that, I have a question already. The book has a Greek
> epigraph on the title page

> <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010800079&seq=13>. It
> looks like this:

> Screenshot from 2024-09-25 11-01-02.png
> Of course, it is riddled with errors. It seems to roughly correspond
> with the 1603 edition

> <https://archive.org/details/theognidismegar00sebegoog/page/n68/mode/1up> of Theognis's /Elegiac Poems/ (which it is citing, lines 601-2), but it can't even get that right. The 19th and 20th century (and 21st, for that matter) versions look like this (see e.g. Wikisource <https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%95%CE%BB%CE%B5%CE%B3%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%B1%CE%B9_%CE%98%CE%B5%CF%8C%CE%B3%CE%BD%CE%B9%CE%B4%CE%BF%CF%82#600>):

>
>     ἔρρε, θεοῖσίν τ' ἐχθρὲ καὶ ἀνθρώποισιν ἄπιστε,
>
>     ψυχρὸν ὃς ἐν κόλπῳ ποικίλον εἶχες ὄφιν.
>
>
> I'm attaching a PDF with more info, in case that helps. But do we do the
> equivalent of "modernize-spelling" on this? It goes against the grain
> simply to reproduce the title page version (and the PG transcription has
> further botches on top of that!).
>
> Thanks! D.
>
>

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[David]

Yes, thanks - standards have changed since that era. Even so, the Blackwood edition has basic mistakes (simply mistakes!), and these are compounded with further errors in the PG transcription.

I'll use the form of the citation found in the Loeb edition, then, as that should be both non-controversial and include the words that Blackmore intended should frame his novel.

(This stuff edges on to my "day job"/professional world, so was pinging very strongly on my radar!)

D.

On Wednesday 25 September 2024 at 18:08:21 UTC+1 Alex Cabal wrote:

If you're referring to the various accents, etc., I believe the way
Greek breathing marks/accents were written has changed since that era so
it's no surprise they're slightly different.

We don't expect anyone to have to correct non-English issues. If you
think there's a more correct transcription of the same phrase then you
can include it.

On 9/25/24 9:47 AM, David wrote:
> And as I post that, I have a question already. The book has a Greek
> epigraph on the title page

> <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010800079&seq=13>. . . .

[David]

After getting side-tracked by the PD2025 projects, this one, too, is getting close to done. Time for a cover. There are a couple that depict a child who could represent the foundling who is the titular "Maid of Sker", but this one (I think) is my favourite. It's Reynolds's "The Age of Innocence" from our DB:

If it doesn't pass muster (too famous?), I'll try out the other one.... Thanks!

D.

[Alex Cabal]

OK!

On 11/15/24 8:54 AM, David wrote:
> After getting side-tracked by the PD2025 projects, this one, too, is
> getting close to done. Time for a cover. There are a couple that depict
> a child who could represent the foundling who is the titular "Maid of
> Sker", but this one (I think) is my favourite. It's Reynolds's "The Age
> of Innocence"

> <https://standardebooks.org/artworks/joshua-reynolds/the-age-of-innocence> from our DB:

>
> cover-age-360x540.jpg
>
> If it doesn't pass muster (too famous?), I'll try out the other one....
> Thanks!
>
> D.
>
>

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[David]

I'm getting mercifully close to wrapping this up, but would appreciate help with a lint error: "Possible typo: italics running nto preceding or following characters." This is the problematic text from the scans:

"Boreas" is a ship name, so I've marked it up as: `<i epub:type="se:name.vessel.ship">Boreas</i>` — and the problematic second case in this paragraph as: `<i epub:type="se:name.vessel.ship">Boreas</i>ses`. (A code search through the corpus suggested that markup.)

Should I remove the italics from "Boreasses"? or add an se-lint-ignore.xml entry? or...??

Thanks! D.

[Alex Cabal]

Ignore entry is fine for this

On 11/29/24 12:05 PM, David wrote:
> I'm getting mercifully close to wrapping this up, but would appreciate
> help with a lint error: "Possible typo: italics running nto preceding or
> following characters." This is the problematic text from the scans

> <https://archive.org/details/cu31924013435833/page/n318/mode/1up?q=boreasses>:

>
> boreas.png
> "Boreas" is a ship name, so I've marked it up as: `<i
> epub:type="se:name.vessel.ship">Boreas</i>` — and the problematic second
> case in this paragraph as: `<i
> epub:type="se:name.vessel.ship">Boreas</i>ses`. (A code search through
> the corpus suggested that markup.)
>
> Should I remove the italics from "Boreasses"? or add an
> se-lint-ignore.xml entry? or...??
>
> Thanks! D.
>

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[David]

And with that, this is now ready for review. A few notes:

• `Pease` (x2) mod-spell wants to change to "Peas", but this is a character speaking whose diction is quite distinctive (= "please")
• `“Don ’e` should not be typogrified
• `Clew up` (x2) in nautical context, NOT "clue" as mod-spell wants to make it
• A note on the epigraph (discussed earlier in this thread) in commit 170b896: the Greek differs from (and corrects) the 19th C. Blackwood edition, and (again) see discussion above.

I think that's it. Hope I haven't left too much detritus.

D.

[Alex Cabal]

This ebook was produced by David Reimer. Thanks David!

Ebook URL: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/r-d-blackmore/the-maid-of-sker

GitHub URL: https://github.com/standardebooks/r-d-blackmore_the-maid-of-sker

[Alex Cabal]

Looks very good David, I've gone ahead and released it. Thanks

On 11/30/24 6:31 AM, David wrote:
> And with that, this is now ready for review

> <https://github.com/dajare/r-d-blackmore_the-maid-of-sker>. A few notes:
>
> * `Pease` (x2) mod-spell wants to change to "Peas", but this is a

> character speaking whose diction is quite distinctive (= "please")

> * `“Don ’e` should not be typogrified
> * `Clew up` (x2) in nautical context, NOT "clue" as mod-spell wants to
> make it
> * A note on the epigraph (discussed earlier in this thread) in commit
> 170b896
> <https://github.com/dajare/r-d-blackmore_the-maid-of-sker/commit/170b8962ea3a19f4315b3209169cb381a2b4008b>: the Greek differs from (and corrects) the 19th C. Blackwood edition, and (again) see discussion above.

>
> I think that's it. Hope I haven't left too much detritus.
>
> D.
>

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