PHP - can a long string of HTML be wrapped in a PHP variable?

[SpiritWandererII]

Can this be done - opening a variable with one PHP tag, then closing the PHP tag but keeping the variable open so everything beneath becomes the value of the variable? Or is there a limit on PHP variable size / characters?\[code\]<?php $content = " ?>a bunch of content goes here <br />with lots of HTML tags and JS scripts<?php "; ?>\[/code\]