Authors: Ivan Pozdniakov, Frank Fischer
License: GPL-3
The goal of rdracor is to provide an R interface for the DraCor API (DraCor: Drama Corpora Project). Website of the project: dracor.org.
Installation from CRAN:
install.packages("rdracor")
If you wish to install the current build of the next release you can do so using the following:
# install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("dracor-org/rdracor")
library(rdracor)
DraCor API has several versions. By default, it utilizes the main branch:
get_dracor_api_url()
#> [1] "https://dracor.org/api/v1"
You can set DraCor URL API of your choice:
set_dracor_api_url("https://staging.dracor.org/api/v1")
All functions of the package request data from DraCor API. If the API
cannot be reached (no internet connection, the server is down or does
not respond), they do not throw an error: they show an informative
message and return NULL. You can check whether the API responds:
dracor_api_available()
#> [1] TRUE
Two time limits apply to every request, both can be changed with
options():
rdracor.connect_timeout — seconds to wait for the server to accept
the connection (30 by default);rdracor.timeout — seconds to wait for the whole response (600 by
default).Increase them if your connection is slow, e.g.:
options(rdracor.timeout = 1800)
Retrieving general information about available corpora:
corpora <- get_dracor_meta()
summary(corpora)
#> DraCor hosts 24 corpora comprising 4918 plays.
#>
#> The last updated corpus was German Drama Corpus (2026-10-07 01:32:39.834).
plot(corpora)
ger <- get_dracor(corpus = "ger")
summary(ger)
#> 783 plays in German Drama Corpus
#> Corpus id: ger, repository: https://github.com/dracor-org/gerdracor
#> Description: Edited by Frank Fischer and Peer Trilcke. Features more than 750 German-language plays from the 1500s to the 1940s. For a corpus description and full credits please see the [README on GitHub](https://github.com/dracor-org/gerdracor).
#> Written years (range): 1549–1947
#> Premiere years (range): 1515–2023
#> Years of the first printing (range): 1510–2010
You can get all corpora at once:
all <- get_dracor()
summary(all)
#> 4930 plays in 24 corpora:
#> Corpora id:
#> fre (1940 plays), ger (783 plays), eng (753 plays), dutch (228 plays), rus (212 plays), cal (205 plays), ita (157 plays), ro (93 plays), hun (74 plays), swe (68 plays), pol (50 plays), u (48 plays), greek (46 plays), am (40 plays), gersh (38 plays), ibs (37 plays), shake (37 plays), rom (36 plays), als (30 plays), span (25 plays), ar (16 plays), yi (8 plays), bash (3 plays), tat (3 plays)
#> Written years (range): 43–1970
#> Premiere years (range): -497–2023
#> Years of the first printing (range): 1170–2017
With get_play_metadata() you can get miscellaneous data for a play:
get_play_metadata(play = "lessing-emilia-galotti",
corpus = "ger",
full_metadata = FALSE) #use full_metadata = FALSE for faster download
#> $allInSegment
#> [1] 30
#>
#> $wikidataId
#> [1] "Q782653"
#>
#> $segments
#> # A tibble: 43 × 4
#> type title speakers number
#> <chr> <chr> <list> <int>
#> 1 scene Erster Aufzug | Erster Auftritt <chr [2]> 1
#> 2 scene Erster Aufzug | Zweiter Auftritt <chr [2]> 2
#> 3 scene Erster Aufzug | Dritter Auftritt <chr [1]> 3
#> 4 scene Erster Aufzug | Vierter Auftritt <chr [2]> 4
#> 5 scene Erster Aufzug | Fünfter Auftritt <chr [1]> 5
#> 6 scene Erster Aufzug | Sechster Auftritt <chr [2]> 6
#> 7 scene Erster Aufzug | Siebenter Auftritt <chr [2]> 7
#> 8 scene Erster Aufzug | Achter Auftritt <chr [2]> 8
#> 9 scene Zweiter Aufzug | Erster Auftritt <chr [2]> 9
#> 10 scene Zweiter Aufzug | Zweiter Auftritt <chr [2]> 10
#> # ℹ 33 more rows
#>
#> $normalizedGenre
#> [1] "Tragedy"
#>
#> $subtitle
#> [1] "Ein Trauerspiel in fünf Aufzügen"
#>
#> $yearPremiered
#> [1] "1772"
#>
#> $corpus
#> [1] "ger"
#>
#> $uri
#> [1] "https://dracor.org/api/v1/corpora/ger/plays/lessing-emilia-galotti"
#>
#> $authors
#> # A tibble: 1 × 4
#> shortname refs name fullname
#> <chr> <list> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 Lessing <df [2 × 2]> Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
#>
#> $yearWritten
#> NULL
#>
#> $title
#> [1] "Emilia Galotti"
#>
#> $allInIndex
#> [1] 0.6976744
#>
#> $name
#> [1] "lessing-emilia-galotti"
#>
#> $yearNormalized
#> [1] 1772
#>
#> $yearPrinted
#> [1] "1772"
#>
#> $originalSource
#> [1] "Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Emilia Galotti. Ein Trauerspiel in fünf Aufzügen. In: Werke. Zweiter Band. Herausgegeben von Herbert G. Göpfert. München: Hanser 1971, S. 127–204."
#>
#> $characters
#> # A tibble: 13 × 12
#> numOfScenes sex betweenness degree numOfWords closeness id
#> <int> <chr> <dbl> <int> <int> <dbl> <chr>
#> 1 17 MALE 0.467 8 4002 0.75 der_prinz
#> 2 2 MALE 0 1 33 0.444 der_kammerdiener
#> 3 2 MALE 0 1 604 0.444 conti
#> 4 19 MALE 0.247 9 4343 0.8 marinelli
#> 5 1 MALE 0 1 78 0.444 camillo_rota
#> 6 13 FEMALE 0.0455 7 1581 0.6 claudia
#> 7 4 MALE 0.0265 5 263 0.545 pirro
#> 8 12 MALE 0.0551 6 2441 0.667 odoardo
#> 9 2 MALE 0 2 487 0.48 angelo
#> 10 7 FEMALE 0.0551 6 1702 0.667 emilia
#> 11 5 MALE 0.00379 4 852 0.522 appiani
#> 12 4 MALE 0.0121 4 152 0.6 battista
#> 13 6 FEMALE 0.0121 4 2111 0.6 orsina
#> # ℹ 5 more variables: numOfSpeechActs <int>, name <chr>, isGroup <lgl>,
#> # eigenvector <dbl>, weightedDegree <int>
#>
#> $commit
#> [1] "7a7a3147b57aed70393facd12cacd69d05f58091"
#>
#> $relations
#> # A tibble: 4 × 4
#> target source type directed
#> <chr> <chr> <chr> <lgl>
#> 1 emilia odoardo parent_of TRUE
#> 2 emilia claudia parent_of TRUE
#> 3 der_prinz marinelli associated_with TRUE
#> 4 der_prinz camillo_rota associated_with TRUE
#>
#> $libretto
#> [1] FALSE
#>
#> $source
#> $source$url
#> [1] "http://www.textgridrep.org/textgrid:rksp.0"
#>
#> $source$name
#> [1] "TextGrid Repository"
#>
#>
#> $datePremiered
#> [1] "1772-03-13"
#>
#> $id
#> [1] "ger000088"
You can extract a co-occurence network (undirected weighted graph) for a specific play:
emilia <- get_net_cooccur_igraph(play = "lessing-emilia-galotti", corpus = "ger")
plot(emilia)
You can use the package {igraph} to work with this object as a graph:
library(igraph)
edge_density(emilia)
#> [1] 0.3717949
cohesion(emilia)
#> [1] 1
In addition, you can get a summary with network properties and sex distribution:
summary(emilia)
#> ger: lessing-emilia-galotti - co-ocurence network summary
#> Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim: Emilia Galotti (1772)
#>
#> Size: 13 (3 FEMALES, 10 MALES, 0 UNKNOWN)
#> Density: 0.37
#> Degree:
#> - Maximum: 9 (Marinelli)
#> Distance:
#> - Maximum (Diameter): 6
#> - Average: 3.03
#> Clustering:
#> - Global: 0.54
#> - Average local: 0.67
#> Cohesion: 1
#> Assortativity: -0.45
Similarly, you can use function get_net_relations_igraph() to build a
network based on relationships data:
galotti_relations <- get_net_relations_igraph(play = "lessing-emilia-galotti",
corpus = "ger")
plot(galotti_relations)
summary(galotti_relations)
#> ger: lessing-emilia-galotti - relations network summary
#> Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim: Emilia Galotti (1772)
#>
#> Size: 13 (3 FEMALES, 10 MALES, 0 UNKNOWN)
#> Relations: 4
#> Odoardo ---> Emilia : parent_of
#> Claudia ---> Emilia : parent_of
#> Marinelli ---> Der Prinz : associated_with
#> Camillo Rota ---> Der Prinz : associated_with
You can get text of a play in different forms:
{xml2}):get_text_tei(play = "lessing-emilia-galotti", corpus = "ger")
#> {xml_document}
#> <TEI id="ger000088" lang="de" xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">
#> [1] <teiHeader>\n <fileDesc>\n <titleStmt>\n <title>Emilia Galotti</ ...
#> [2] <standOff>\n <listEvent>\n <event type="print" when="1772">\n <d ...
#> [3] <text>\n <pb n="127"/>\n <front>\n <titlePage>\n <docAuthor>Got ...
text_galotti <- get_text_chr_spoken(play = "lessing-emilia-galotti",
corpus = "ger")
head(text_galotti)
#> [1] "Klagen, nichts als Klagen! Bittschriften, nichts als Bittschriften! – Die traurigen Geschäfte; und man beneidet uns noch! – Das glaub' ich; wenn wir allen helfen könnten: dann wären wir zu beneiden. – Emilia? Eine Emilia? – Aber eine Emilia Bruneschi – nicht Galotti. Nicht Emilia Galotti! – Was will sie, diese Emilia Bruneschi? Viel gefodert; sehr viel. – Doch sie heißt Emilia. Gewährt! Es ist wohl noch keiner von den Räten in dem Vorzimmer?"
#> [2] "Nein."
#> [3] "Ich habe zu früh Tag gemacht. – Der Morgen ist so schön. Ich will ausfahren. Marchese Marinelli soll mich begleiten. Laßt ihn rufen. – Ich kann doch nicht mehr arbeiten. – Ich war so ruhig, bild' ich mir ein, so ruhig – Auf einmal muß eine arme Bruneschi, Emilia heißen; – weg ist meine Ruhe, und alles! –"
#> [4] "Nach dem Marchese ist geschickt. Und hier, ein Brief von der Gräfin Orsina."
#> [5] "Der Orsina? Legt ihn hin."
#> [6] "Ihr Läufer wartet."
get_text_df(play = "lessing-emilia-galotti", corpus = "ger")
#> # A tibble: 1,174 × 10
#> text type type_attributes who scene scene_path subdiv_path line_id
#> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <int>
#> 1 Die Szene, … stage "" <NA> Erst… act 1 stage 1 1
#> 2 an einem Ar… stage "" der_… Erst… act 1 | s… sp 1 | sta… 2
#> 3 Klagen, nic… p "" der_… Erst… act 1 | s… sp 1 | p 1 3
#> 4 Indem er no… stage "" der_… Erst… act 1 | s… sp 1 | p 1 4
#> 5 Eine Emilia… p "" der_… Erst… act 1 | s… sp 1 | p 1 5
#> 6 Er lieset. stage "" der_… Erst… act 1 | s… sp 1 | p 1 6
#> 7 Viel gefode… p "" der_… Erst… act 1 | s… sp 1 | p 1 7
#> 8 Er untersch… stage "" der_… Erst… act 1 | s… sp 1 | p 1 8
#> 9 Es ist wohl… p "" der_… Erst… act 1 | s… sp 1 | p 1 9
#> 10 Nein. p "" der_… Erst… act 1 | s… sp 2 | p 1 10
#> # ℹ 1,164 more rows
#> # ℹ 2 more variables: subdiv_id <int>, scene_id <int>
If you want to use another version of DraCor API (e.g. staging or
locally saved on your computer), you can use function
set_dracor_api_url():
set_dracor_api_url("https://staging.dracor.org/api/v1")
#> Working DraCor repository was changed from https://dracor.org/api/v1
#> DraCor API URL: https://staging.dracor.org/api/v1
#> openapi: https://staging.dracor.org/api/v1/openapi.yaml
#> lastModified: 2026-10-17T17:02:35.514+02:00
#> existdb: 6.4.0
#> version: 1.5.0-beta.1-2-g577bcf3
#> name: DraCor API v1
#> base: https://staging.dracor.org/api/v1
#> status: stable
get_dracor("u")
#> # A tibble: 48 × 62
#> corpus id playName yearNormalized title titleEn subtitle subtitleEn
#> * <chr> <chr> <chr> <int> <chr> <chr> <chr> <lgl>
#> 1 u u000001 ukrainka-adv… 1913 Адво… Attorn… Драмати… NA
#> 2 u u000002 ukrainka-yoh… 1909 Йога… Joanna… Драмати… NA
#> 3 u u000003 ukrainka-ais… 1913 Айша… Aisha … Діалог NA
#> 4 u u000004 ukrainka-boi… 1914 Бояр… The No… Драмати… NA
#> 5 u u000005 ukrainka-kas… 1908 Касс… Cassan… Драмати… NA
#> 6 u u000006 ukrainka-kam… 1912 Камі… The St… <NA> NA
#> 7 u u000007 ukrainka-ruf… 1911 Руфі… Rufin … Драма в… NA
#> 8 u u000008 ukrainka-orh… 1913 Оргія The Or… Драмати… NA
#> 9 u u000009 ukrainka-try… 1913 Трип… Tripty… (Легенд… NA
#> 10 u u000010 ukrainka-try… 1906 Три … Three … Діалог NA
#> # ℹ 38 more rows
#> # ℹ 54 more variables: firstAuthorName <chr>, authors <list>,
#> # source.name <chr>, source.url <chr>, yearWrittenStart <int>,
#> # yearWrittenFinish <int>, yearPrintedStart <lgl>, yearPrintedFinish <int>,
#> # yearPremieredStart <int>, yearPremieredFinish <int>, wikidataId <chr>,
#> # networkSize <int>, networkdataCsvUrl <chr>, uri <chr>, datePremiered <chr>,
#> # normalizedGenre <lgl>, size <int>, density <dbl>, diameter <int>, …
Information on the working API can be retrieved by dracor_api_info():
dracor_api_info()
#> DraCor API URL: https://staging.dracor.org/api/v1
#> openapi: https://staging.dracor.org/api/v1/openapi.yaml
#> lastModified: 2026-10-17T17:02:35.514+02:00
#> existdb: 6.4.0
#> version: 1.5.0-beta.1-2-g577bcf3
#> name: DraCor API v1
#> base: https://staging.dracor.org/api/v1
#> status: stable
The development of this research software was supported by Computational Literary Studies Infrastructure (CLS INFRA) through its Transnational Access Fellowship programme. CLS INFRA has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement №101004984.
