reledmac: using stanza environment for dramatic verse

Question

This question is a follow-up to reledpar (& thalie): option advancedshiftedpstarts upsets paragraph beginnings and line numbering

I am trying to make the \stanza environment of eledmac (and consequently the astanza environment of eledpar)suitable for the setting of dramatic verse. At present I am retaining functions from the thalie package for the management of characters in the play. The following MWE shows an example of dramatic lines with the following things missing:

1. there is no line numeration displayed at all. The last line of verse is supposed to be line 5 in the play. Am I forgetting an "easy" setting?

2. while the general hanging indention works fine for all lines in a stanza following the first, the first lines in a speech should leave space between the character's name and his first words in order to reflect the metrical nature of a "split verse." Since this always occurs in a \startlock \endlock configuration, my guess is that these two commands would be the point to determine the length of the needed empty space and also set it. I am at a loss, however, how to implement that.

MWE:

\documentclass [12pt, a4paper, pagesize] {scrbook}
\usepackage [UKenglish] {babel}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{microtype}

\usepackage[characterstyle=imprimerie-prose]{thalie}

\usepackage{reledmac}


%%retained from the thalie package, modifies the way a character's name is given in the first line of speech
\renewcommand*{\speakswithoutdirection}[1]{%
   \noindent\textsc{#1}\xspace.%
    }



%%line numbers for broken half lines on last bit of line
\lockdisp{last}

\begin{document}

\begin{dramatis}[hidden]
    \character[cmd={Buckingham}]{Buckingham}
    \character[cmd={Norfolk}]{Norfolk}
\end{dramatis}

%sets indent for stanza at 2\parindent for all lines following the first in a stanza
\setlength\stanzaindentbase{2\parindent}
\setstanzaindents{0,1}
\setcounter{stanzaindentsrepetition}{1}

    \beginnumbering
        \selectlanguage{UKenglish}
        \stanza\Buckingham Good morrow and well met. How have ye done&Since last we saw in France?\startlock\&

        \stanza\Norfolk\endlock I thank your grace,&Healthful, and ever since a fresh admirer&Of what I saw there.\startlock\&

\stanza\Buckingham\endlock An untimely ague&Stayed me a prisoner in my chamber when\&
        \endnumbering


\end{document}

This is how the alignment of "split verses" is supposed to look (in a different font though).

Many thanks for your help.

Additional example for lineation:

Even with \firstlinenum{1}, \linenumincrement{1} and \linenummargin{right} I could not get any display of line numbers >1 in my MWE, so I added them myself to show how it is supposed to look if each line number were displayed (please excuse my poor drawing skills)

Apologies for the piecemal editing. I've created another example that shows how both issues (horizontal spacing in split verse, and lineation) are supposed to look. This one was created by thalie's functions in \pstart \pend environments (unusable in a ledpar parallel setting with the advancedshiftedpstarts option due to vertical skips, as brought up in the related question named at the top).

Answer 1

Your question asked for some features which didn't exist on reledmac. After having asked on github, I implemented these features on reledmac 2.33.1 / reledpar 2.24.0.

This version will be release ASAP on CTAN.

For other users of SE, here the answer to the question.

1. Split a line of verse in two

The antilabe mechanism (a line of verse splitted in two because the speaker change) is implemented in the new version of reledmac.

You just have to

1. Load the package with the antilabe option.
2. Add \antilabe at the beginning of the secund half of the line of verse.
3. Optionally, you can redefine \afterantilabe if you want to add more space, for example \renewcommand{\afterantilabe}{\hspace{1em}.

2. Don't count the first half of the line in the total line number

Use \skipnumbering instead of \start...\endlock

3. Set indents

Not a part of your initial question, but if you want to have the first line of a stanza not indented and all other lines indented by 1, you may use the following settings:

\setstanzaindents{1,0,1}
\setcounter{stanzaindentsrepetition}{1}
\setcounter{startstanzaindentsrepetition}{2}

startstanzaindentsrepetition is a new feature of reledmac 2.33.0

4 Some remarks

All your setting about indent, and in general all reledmac/reledpar settings should be in the preamble, for code clarity.

5 final code

Here the final code, which is now a part of reledmac documentation, thanks you :)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[osf,p]{libertinus}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\babeltags{english = english}

\usepackage[characterstyle=imprimerie-prose]{thalie}

\usepackage[noeledsec,noend,noledgroup,nofamiliar,nocritical,antilabe]{reledmac}
\setstanzaindents{1,0,1}
\setcounter{stanzaindentsrepetition}{1}
\setcounter{startstanzaindentsrepetition}{2}

\linenumincrement{1}
\firstlinenum{1}
%%retained from the thalie package, modifies the way a character's name is given in the first line of speech
\renewcommand*{\speakswithoutdirection}[1]{%
  \noindent\textsc{#1}\xspace.%
}

% Space after \antilabe macro
\renewcommand{\afterantilabe}{\hspace{1em}}
\begin{document}


\begin{abstract}
This file provides an example of typesetting verse for a dramatic text with reledmac and thalie packages.

We use the thalie features to manage characters.

We use the following features of reledmac to typeset the verses:
\begin{itemize}
  \item \verb+\antilabe+ to show correctly the second half of a split line of verse (antilabe);
  \item \verb+\afterantilabe+ to add more space after \verb+\antilabe+;
  \item \verb+\setcounter{stanzaindentsrepetition}+ and \\  \verb+\setcounter{startstanzaindentsrepetition}+ to have the first line of a reply/stanza indented, but not the following ones;
  \item \verb+\skipnumbering+ to avoid counting the first half of an antilabe in the line counting.
\end{itemize}
\end{abstract}

ddd
%%part of thalie's management of characters
\begin{dramatis}
  \character[cmd={Buckingham}]{Buckingham}
  \character[cmd={Norfolk}]{Norfolk}
\end{dramatis}

% Normal typesetting
\beginnumbering
\stanza\Buckingham Good morrow and well met. How have ye done&
\skipnumbering Since last we saw in France?\&
\stanza\antilabe\Norfolk I thank your grace,&
Healthful, and ever since a fresh admirer&
\skipnumbering Of what I saw there.\&
\stanza\antilabe\Buckingham An untimely ague&
Stayed me a prisoner in my chamber when\&
\endnumbering

\end{document}