Another apparent exception to the above rule is found in the various modes of printing stage directions in dramatic composition. As such directions have no reference to the meaning of the language of the text, it is desirable, in printing them, to show this fact by their form. In the main, such directions are either centered lines shorter than the text, or are indented more than the usual space of the paragraph. They may be enclosed in brackets or parentheses, and be printed in either italic or Roman type, or in italics without the brackets or parentheses.
If a direction precedes, as it does sometimes, the speech to which it belongs, and is in the opening line of such speech, it necessarily is enclosed in brackets. If it follows and ends the last line of the speech, it takes a single bracket at the beginning of the direction. If it follows, and is put below, the last line, it takes a single bracket, or is printed in the style of the direction preceding the speech.
Thus we see that the variety of style in printing stage directions grows out of the fact that they are sometimes identified as stage directions by their location and the style of type (italic), and therefore do not necessarily require brackets for further identification.
We shall not take space to illustrate the above varieties of punctuation. Examples can readily be found in almost any library.
We have dwelt perhaps more at length upon this varied punctuation than its importance may seem to justify; but, it seems to us, we may see in it a principle underlying even conventional punctuation.
Our next sentence illustrates a very common use of brackets. In this sentence we make the first enclosure (sic), the second being that of the writer who made the quotation:
116. In one of John Smith’s quaint letters to the Royal Council of Virginia, sitting in London, he says: “And I humbly entreat you hereafter, [sic] let us know what we [are to] receive, and not stand to the sailors’ courtesy to leave us what they please.”
When inserted in a quotation, the Latin word “sic,” meaning thus, signifies that what immediately precedes it is found in the original. By thus calling attention to it, the writer who makes the quotation implies that an error exists at this point. Our own insertion of “sic” is meant to say that the comma preceding it is in the original, and to question its correctness. The position of the comma makes “hereafter” qualify what precedes, as if it read, “I hereafter entreat you.” The evident meaning is, “hereafter let us know.”
The words “are to,” enclosed in the next brackets, were inserted by the writer who quoted from John Smith’s letter.