Prototype dynamics in the Restoration vernacular print: A diachronic onomastic study of Poor Robin’s Almanack
Abstract
This study quantifies the internal semantics of the mock-saint calendars that appeared annually in Poor Robin’s Almanack between 1664 and 1674, the most widely circulated comic almanac of Restoration London. From ten digitized issues a corrected onomastic corpus of 2728 tokens was compiled; every name is time-stamped by month and year, classified under one of eight narrative roles — Heroes & Knights, Lovers, Magic & Supernatural, Notorious Women, Outlaws & Rogues, Sages & Satirists, Tricksters & Fools, and Tyrants & Traitors — and tagged for cultural provenance (Greek myth, broadside ballad, contemporary pamphlet, etc.). Token frequency serves as an historical production norm; the category concentration and intra-class typicality translate that frequency into prototype strength. Results reveal a graded folk taxonomy. Lovers and Heroes & Knights form tight, myth-anchored nuclei dominated by a handful of classical and romance figures, whereas Tricksters & Fools and Tyrants & Traitors display deliberately flat profiles open to continual topical additions. Provenance tags show a strong correlation between lexical concentration and cultural homogeneity: categories with high concentration draw most of their tokens from a single narrative pool, while diffuse categories recruit names from five or more source domains. Diachronically, the calendar’s centre of gravity first shifts toward political invective, then toward jest-book humor, quantifying how popular print renegotiates the sacred–profane boundary in step with shifting political climates and the taste for novelty. Methodologically, the article demonstrates that fixed-format onomastic satire can be mined much like production norms: name extraction, semantic tagging, prototype metrics and diachronic slicing together provide an alternative for historical cognitive linguistics.
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References
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Sources for illustrations
Poor Robin. (1664). An almanack after a new fashion wherein the reader may see (if he be not blinde) many remarkable things worthy of observation : Containing a two-fold kalender, viz. the julian or english, and the round-heads or fanaticks, with their several saints daies, and observations upon every month : Calculated for the meridian of saffron-walden, where the pole is elevated 52 degrees and 6 minutes above the horizon / written by poor robin .. [Poor Robin, 1664. Poor Robin, sixteen sixty-four.]. London: Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/books/almanack-after-new-fashion-wherein-reader-may-see/docview/2248527269/se-2
Poor Robin. (1665). An almanack after a new fashion being the first after bissextile, or leap-year : Wherein the reader may see (if he be not blind) many remarkable things worthy of observation : Containing a two-fold kalender, viz. the julian or english, and the round-heads or fanaticks, with their several saints daies, and observations upon every month : Calculated for the meridian of saffron-walden, where the pole is elevated 62 degrees and 6 digits above the horizon / written by poor robin .. [Poor Robin, 1665. Poor Robin, sixteen sixty-five.]. London: Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/books/almanack-after-new-fashion-being-first-bissextile/docview/2240850634/se-2
Poor Robin. (1667). An almanack after a new fashion wherein the reader may see (if he be not blind) many remarkable things worthy of observation : Being the third after bissextile or leap-year : Containing a two-fold kalender, viz. the julian or english, and the round-heads or fanaticks, with their several saints daies, and observations upon every month : In a more exact method then heretofore : Calculated for the meridian of saffron-walden, where the may-pole is elevated (with a plumm cake on the top of it) 5 yards 3/4 above the marker-cross / written by poor robin .. [Poor Robin, 1667. Poor Robin, sixteen sixty-seven.]. London: Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/books/almanack-after-new-fashion-wherein-reader-may-see/docview/2248517539/se-2
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Poor Robin. (1671). Poor robin 1671 an almanack after a new fashion : Wherein the reader may see (if he be not blind) many remarkable things worthy of observation : Being the 3d after bissextile, or leap-year : Containing a two-fold kalendar, viz. the julian, or english, and the round-heads, or fanaticks : With their several saints days, and observations upon every moneth / written by poor robin [Poor Robin sixteen seventy-one.]. London: Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/books/poor-robin-1671-almanack-after-new-fashion/docview/2248551371/se-2
Poor Robin. (1672). Poor robin 1672 an almanack after a new fashion : Wherein the reader may see (if he be not blind) many remarkable things worthy of observation : Being the bissextile,or leap-year : Containing a two-fold kalendar, viz. the julian, or english, and the round-heads, or fanaticks : With their several saints days, and observations upon every moneth / written by poor robin .. [Poor Robin sixteen seventy-two.]. London: Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/books/poor-robin-1672-almanack-after-new-fashion/docview/2240955080/se-2
Poor Robin. (1674). Poor robin 1674 an almanack after a new fashion : Wherein the reader may see (if he be not blind) many remarkable things worthy of observation : Being the 2d after bissextile, or leap-year : Containing a two-fold kalendar, viz. the julian, or english, and the round-heads, or fanaticks : With their several saints days, and observations upon every moneth / written by poor robin .. [Poor Robin sixteen seventy-four.]. London: Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/books/poor-robin-1674-almanack-after-new-fashion/docview/2240869309/se-2
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