My First Booke of My Life

Editorial Principles and Documentation

lvii Editorial Principles and Documentation Thetranscriptionandeditorialclarificationspreserveasenseofthemanuscriptwhilemakingthetextaccessibletomodernreaders .Thepunctuation and capitalization are especially challenging. Unlike the British Library manuscript on the first year of widowhood and to a greater extent than in the microfilmed version of the remembrances at Yale, in the revised “first Booke” Thornton uses the dot or period often, apparently to indicate a pause, pen rest, or separation rather than to mark only an abbreviation or what might appear to be the end of a sentence. The colon and semicolon donotalwaysstressdifferentdegreesofemphasis,nordoestheabsenceof punctuation always indicate none is required. A series of nouns or modifiers may contain periods, commas, andsemicolons; it may also have sporadicpunctuationornone .Colonsoftenmarkabbreviations,buttheyless certainlyfollowthecontemporarypracticeofindicatingafullstop.Inconsistency further characterizes the capitalization, complicating any determination of practice or principle. Initially the distinction between capital andlowercaselettersisclear,althoughtheusetendstobeerratic.Thornton may capitalize Soul and Spirit, while on the same page they may be clearly lowercase.Whenthehandwritinglaterchanges,becomingapparentlymore hurried,capitalizationislesscertain.Asthelettersbecomesmaller,theearlier difference between, for example, M and m or N and n is less obvious. Especially troubling is the capital S. As Thornton appears to write more quickly and drags her pen, the letter resembles the long s, and midway in themanuscriptthedistinctionbetweentheinitials andhermediallooped orlongsoftendisappears.Inconsistencyfurtherunderminesprinciplesof capitalization.Thorntondoesnotalwayscapitalizepropernouns,notably the names of her children and relatives, and she appears indiscriminate in capitalizing other words. She also favors the capital A and less so the T. Rather than modernize the punctuation and capitalization, which in the absence of consistency may be justified, this edition retains whenever lviii • Editorial Principles and Documentation possible the idiosyncrasies and clarifies the ambiguities without unduly distractingfromthetext.Commasareinsertedorreplace semicolonsand periodsinseries;restmarksthatservenootherpurposeareremoved;and where the rhythm and sense suggest a different punctuation, the appropriate change is made. To avoid becoming intrusive, these and the other changesdesignedtogiveshapetoThornton’slooseandoftenlengthysentencesarenotindicatedinbracketedadditionsandomissions .Norarethe changes intended to undo characteristic patterns in deference to modern practices. Thornton tends to separate or subordinate parts of a sentence where conventionally they would not be punctuated. Typically, she also uses commas to set off the second of two nouns or modifiers linked by a conjunction. These distinctive tendencies are retained for the most part, although another somewhat contradictory practice is modified. While Thornton sometimes punctuates direct address, particularly to God, she does not consistently follow this pattern, and she similarly tends not to punctuateappositions.Whenintheseinstancespunctuationiswarranted and the sense can be improved, commas are added. Throughout the text theparentheses,apostrophes,andhyphensareoriginaltothemanuscript. The edition replaces colons, other than those in biblical quotations, with commas or periods. Capitalization requires less editing, since clarity and meaningarenotanimmediateconcern.Capitalandlowercaselettershave beenchangedwhenrequiredbyeditorialclarificationsofpunctuation,and the changes are noted in square brackets. Determining whether other letters are capital or lowercase is at times complicated by Thornton’s inconsistent practice and handwriting. The capital and variant forms of s, the most challenging and subjective to determine, when uncertain are transcribed in the edition as lowercase. When the initial s is compressed, as it often is in St , some leeway is taken in transcribing it as a capital letter. An initial s that resembles a medials or descends below the line is considered for the most part, as in much italic hand, to be lowercase. Though the spelling in the manuscript is also often inconsistent, the edition attempts to follow closely the original orthography. The edited text preserves a contemporary use of u/v and i/j, and it assumes the context resolves the meaning of the interchangeably used words of/off and to/too. The spelling of other words and their variants is generally that of the original. When the distinction in the manuscript between omissions Editorial Principles and Documentation • lix and elisions becomes uncertain, particularly at the ends of lines and in the addendum, and the context leaves the meaning unclear, the missing letters are added in square brackets. Thornton’s tendency to omit the letter e at the ends of words, before the letter r, and in the syllables er and ed is therefore seldom emended, since her intent is usually apparent. Letters in words that are transposed or omitted in obvious exception to the spelling elsewhere in the text are silently emended. The conventional designation sic has been kept to a minimum, primarily to indicate uncertainties or queries about Thornton’s intent. Separations within words caused by the endings of lines are closed; words in sentences clearly separated by syllable or letter are joined in the edition only when they are the exception or when they affect the meaning. Contractions are with few exceptionsexpandedandsuperscriptsarelowered .ThoughThorntondoesspell the words...