{"id":647,"date":"2017-06-13T14:29:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-13T18:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wwp.northeastern.edu\/blog\/?p=647"},"modified":"2018-08-15T19:41:21","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T23:41:21","slug":"finding-elizabeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwp.northeastern.edu\/blog\/finding-elizabeth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Queen’s Two Corpora: Finding Elizabeth using the WWO Database"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of a series authored by our collaborators on\u00a0the\u00a0Intertextual Networks project. For more information, see\u00a0here.<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

By\u00a0Kristen Abbott Bennett, Framingham State University<\/h3>\n

At Tilbury, Elizabeth I gave a rousing speech to motivate her subjects, exclaiming: \u201cI know I have the bodie, but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and Stomach of a King, and of a King of England\u201d (Cabala<\/a>). Elizabeth\u2019s recognition of her female princely bodies as simultaneously separate and the same reflects awareness of her politically constructed dual corpora. Historically, the \u201cKing\u2019s two bodies\u201d theory was adapted from ideas surrounding the divine right of kings. During Elizabeth\u2019s reign, it was legislated to preserve her interests in lands acquired by Edward IV in his minority:<\/p>\n

For the King has in him two Bodies, viz., a Body natural, and a Body politic\u2026. [The latter] is a Body that cannot be seen or handled, consisting of Policy and Government, and constituted for the Direction of the people, and the Management of the public weal, and this Body is utterly void of Infancy, and old Age, and other natural Defects and Imbecilities, which the Body natural is subject to, and for this Cause, what the King does in his Body politic, cannot be invalidated or frustrated by any Disability in his natural Body. (Kantorowicz 7)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The \u201cKing\u2019s Two Bodies\u201d construction offers an apt metaphor for thinking about approaches to corpus-based linguistic analyses. These approaches allow one to consider a single body of work in and of itself, as well as realize its rhetorical relationship to a larger corpus.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In the context of sub-corpora created from the Women Writers Online<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>database, the \u201cintertexts\u201d corpus I discuss here\u00a0analogizes Elizabeth\u2019s \u201cbody politic\u201d that both embodies, yet remains distinctive from \u201cthe body natural\u201d\u2013here another sub-corpus containing Elizabeth\u2019s speeches.<\/p>\n

What follows is a brief account of the methods I have used to create corpora from the WWO <\/em>database, ranging from basic keyword searches to more complex computationally assisted searches, along with a short discussion about the choices I made along the way. With an eye toward next steps, I close with an overview of how one may convert XML documents into different kinds of file types that lend themselves well to computational and visual analysis.<\/p>\n

Finding Elizabeth<\/h3>\n

Initially, I used keyword searches to find the works that mention Elizabeth; works authored by her are listed, with WWO links, here<\/a>. I quickly learned that my attempts to search \u201cElizabeth I\u201d in a database featuring works produced between 1526\u20131850 was not the best move; Elizabeth II was yet to exist. This initial foray revealed 120 works of the 390 in the WWO <\/em>corpus (as of spring 2017) that mention an Elizabeth, plus 276 discrete references to women named \u201cElizabeth.\u201d I persevered, using Ctrl + F and skimming, ultimately locating suitable intertexts (that is, intertextual references to Elizabeth I) dating between the early seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries that discuss her in both historical and fictional contexts.<\/p>\n

For example, both Esther Sowernam\u2019s 1617 pamphlet, Esther Hang\u2019d Haman <\/em><\/a>and Bathusa Makin\u2019s 1673 Essay to revive the ancient education of gentlewomen<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>laud the historical Elizabeth\u2019s virtues and learning. Yet in Mary Deverell\u2019s 1792 play, Mary Queen of Scots<\/a>, <\/em>the fictionalized Scottish queen suggests that Elizabeth\u2019s learnedness is undesirable and unfeminine: \u201cmy sister\u2019s mind is masculine\u201d (O2v).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Although Deverell\u2019s work ultimately presents an even-handed assessment of two Queens surrounded by male advisors and doing the best they can, American writer Judith Sargent Murray\u2019s 1798 fictional account of Elizabeth and Mary\u2019s history portrays the English queen as manipulative, dissembling, and self-serving. I had high hopes for Margaret Cavendish saying something excessive, but she mentions Elizabeth\u2019s reign only to mark time in Nature\u2019s Pictures<\/a>. <\/em>This early research generated enough information and questions for me to propose, and commit to creating, a multimedia intertextual exhibit that networks transcontinental representations of Elizabeth by six other WWO<\/em> authors in the context of common discourses associated with the queen: her dual-gender, her \u201ccult of love,\u201d renowned learning, relationship with Mary, Queen of Scots, and her refusal to marry.<\/p>\n

At this point in the process, I was introduced to Ashley Clark\u2019s (Northeastern) brilliant Counting Robot<\/a>\u00a0(an XQuery for performing basic counts on WWP files) and saw an opportunity to test human-brain approaches to \u201cfinding\u201d related texts in a large database against basic computational methods.<\/p>\n

Creating the Corpora<\/h3>\n

A\u00a0 <persName> search for \u201cElizabeth\u201d produced 103 files including Elizabeth\u2019s speeches, but it still threw out false positives. Eventually, I adapted Ashley\u2019s code to create multiple search strings using early modern spellings and alternate names (Eliz, Elizabeth, Princess, Bess, etc.) and then checked contexts manually\u2014this method resulted in finding 33 files, including Elizabeth\u2019s works.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The results were similar when my colleague Mary Erica Zimmer suggested the labor-saving method of searching for cases where @ref on <persName> pointed to the unique identifier established for Elizabeth in the WWP\u2019s personography;\u00a0this method helped us extract Elizabeth I from her many (likely) namesakes and locate 21 valid intertexts.<\/p>\n

During the first pass, it made sense to create one corpus containing Elizabeth\u2019s works, another of her intertexts, and a third including all the files. Although this seems relatively straightforward, the concept of \u201cElizabeth\u2019s works\u201d is problematic. The WWO <\/em>database includes her speeches, one translation, and one \u201ctrue copie of a letter.\u201d Although Elizabeth\u2019s speeches were transcribed and printed by men, they offer a record of the way she presented herself to her subjects. It made sense to limit the \u201cElizabeth\u201d corpus to her speeches, and excise the \u201ctrue copy of a letter\u201d and the translation to focus on a single genre. Once \u201cElizabeth\u201d was defined, the intertexts were easy to manage; the sole criterion for inclusion was at least one clear mention of Elizabeth I. In the context of the \u201ctwo bodies\u201d metaphor, these corpora situate Elizabeth\u2019s \u201cnatural\u201d body in the context of her \u201cbody politic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now What?<\/h3>\n

The first corpora were encoded in XML and lent themselves well to computational inquiry using the Counting Robot, XPath searches in oXygen, and AntConc. For example, these initial forays revealed that elements with @rend (indicating typographic changes) often point to a given work\u2019s proper nouns and linguistic shifts, in addition to elements such as <persName> and <emph> that mark such features more explicitly. For the purposes of this project, I put that query aside for the time being and thought about the possibilities for these specific corpora.<\/p>\n

It quickly became apparent that any computational analysis of these works called for creating additional corpora. Any text mining, visualization, or mapping approaches required removing the tags from the texts. Following Sarah Connell\u2019s suggestion of a quick, if relatively low-tech,\u00a0method for transforming the XML files, we opened the texts in oXygen, switched to \u201cAuthor\u201d mode, and then copied and pasted each text into a Word document. The last step was to make a plain text corpus.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Why so many corpora? The first set, in XML, lend themselves well to computational queries about tagged elements. Reformatting the corpora into Word docs made the works more easily searchable, plus these documents lend themselves well to visualization using tools like Voyant<\/a>. Similarly, conversion into text files permits users to work with visualization and analytical tools such as AntConc<\/a> and Recogito<\/a>. Although clearly exceeding the \u201ctwo corpora\u201d promised by this title, I hope to have offered people who may be new to working with literary databases helpful approaches toward getting up and running.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h3>\n

Anon. Cabala:\u00a0sive Scrinia Sacra<\/em>. London, Printed for\u00a0G. Bedel<\/em>, and\u00a0T. Collins<\/em>, and are to be \u017fold at their\u00a0Shop at the\u00a0Middle-Temple-gate\u00a0in\u00a0Fleet\u017ftreet<\/em>,\u00a01654. Women Writers Online, <\/em>Accessed 5 May 2017.\u00a0http:\/\/www.wwp.northeastern.edu\/texts\/elizabeth.tilburycabala.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Cavendish, Margaret (Lucas), Duchess of Newcastle. Natures Pictures Drawn by Fancies Pencil to the Live, <\/em>J. Martin and J. Allstrye, 1656. Women Writers Online, <\/em>Accessed 5 May 2017. \u00a0http:\/\/www.wwp.northeastern.edu\/texts\/cavendish.natpix.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Deverell, Mary. Mary Queen of Scots; an Historical Tragedy, or, Dramatic Poem. <\/em>Deverell, 1792. Women Writers Online, <\/em>Accessed 5 May 2017.
\nhttp:\/\/www.wwp.northeastern.edu\/texts\/deverell.maryqueen.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Kantorowicz, Ernst A. The King\u2019s Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology. <\/em>Princeton UP, 1957.<\/p>\n

Makin, Bathusa. An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen.<\/em> J.D., 1673. Women Writers Online, <\/em>Accessed 5 May 2017.
\nhttp:\/\/www.wwp.northeastern.edu\/texts\/makin.essays.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Murray, Judith (Sargent). The Gleaner, <\/em>I. Thomas and E.T. Andrews, 1798. Women Writers Online, <\/em>Accessed 5 May 2017.\u00a0http:\/\/www.wwp.northeastern.edu\/texts\/murray.gleaner.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Sowernam, Esther. Esther Hath Hanged Haman. <\/em>Nicholas Bourne, 1617. Women Writers Online, <\/em>Accessed 5 May 2017.\u00a0http:\/\/www.wwp.northeastern.edu\/texts\/sowernam.haman.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Notes.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is part of a series authored by our collaborators on\u00a0the\u00a0Intertextual Networks project. For more information, see\u00a0here.\u00a0 By\u00a0Kristen Abbott Bennett, Framingham State University At Tilbury, Elizabeth I gave a rousing speech to motivate her subjects, exclaiming: \u201cI know I have the bodie, but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and Stomach of a King, and of a King of England\u201d (Cabala). Elizabeth\u2019s recognition of her female princely bodies as simultaneously separate and the same…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intertextual-networks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwp.northeastern.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwp.northeastern.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwp.northeastern.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwp.northeastern.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwp.northeastern.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/wwp.northeastern.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":955,"href":"https:\/\/wwp.northeastern.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions\/955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwp.northeastern.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwp.northeastern.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwp.northeastern.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}