WWOSubset
WWO Subset overview
Subset tracking page: complete and detailed information about the progress of names-in-content encoding for the WWO subset identified below.
Basic criteria for the selection of a subset (roughly 30 texts) of the present WWO collection for thorough encoding of names in content:
- Some portion of the texts should have a meaningful thematic, historical, or contextual connection to one another; this could mean dividing the subset into multiple smaller sets of texts that are related to one another, or speak to each other, in some way
- Texts should be generally representative of the broad historical period covered by the WWO collection
- Texts should contain names that are likely to be of interest to scholars who use, or would potentially use, WWO collection
- Texts should contain a varied set of name types or roles (e.g. not all fictional names, or not all classical names) to permit users to examine how different name roles overlap --- or segregate themselves --- across different genres or historical periods
- Texts should be of manageable length --- no multi-volume novels!
- Anything else?
Keeping in mind these criteria, I have searched our current (Sept. 5, 2008) set of published texts for likely candidates and come up with the following list, divided into the three broad categories proposed at our August 5, 2008 meeting:
Sermons, spiritual autobiographies, and religious tracts
Date | Author | Title | Total Pages | Names/Page | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1548 | Parr, Katherine | The Lamentation of a Sinner | 128 | 1.7 | |
1641 | Chidley, Katharine | Justification of the Independent Churches... | 88 | 5.8 | |
1651 | Love, Mary | Love's Name Lives | 18 | 6.6 | |
1654 | Trapnel, Anna | The Cry of a Stone | 40 | 6.2 | |
1656 | Fell, Margaret | Loving Salutation to the Seed of Abraham | 39 | 7.7 | |
1660 | Fell, Margaret | Evident Demonstration to Gods Elect | 8 | 15.8 | |
1660 | Biddle, Hester | Warning from the Lord God | 23 | 2.8 | |
1663 | Love, Mary | Love's Name Lives | 16 | 7.4 | This is virtually the same text as the 1651 edition --- or at least that seems to be the case when it comes to personal names. Including both texts may be unnecessary duplication. |
1667 | Fell, Margaret | Women's Speaking Justified | 20 | 12 | |
1677 | Whitrow, Joan | Work of God in a Dying Maid | 48 | 0.7 | |
1692 | Whitrow, Joan | Humble Salutation...to King William | ? | ? | A large number of the personal names that appear in the text, many of them scriptural, have not been encoded |
1694 | Whitrow, Joan | Widow Whitrow's Humble Thanksgiving | 40 | 3.8 |
These texts span roughly the first half of the period represented in the WWO and contain numerous scriptural and historical names (often saints, but sometimes contemporary religious and political figures). Problems with this list include the duplication of individual writers (Fell and Whitrow) and, potentially, their generic heterogeneity --- though I'm inclined to argue that the mixture of personal narrative, political invective, and Biblical exegesis some of these texts contain is a feature of a large percentage of the period's prose writing, and thus isn't really a problem.
Neoclassical and lyric poetry
Date | Author | Title | Total Pages | Names/Page | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1567 | Whitney, Isabella | The Copy of a Letter | 30 | Strictly speaking, neither neoclassical nor lyric...But it contains numerous classical/mythological references | |
1650 | Bradstreet, Anne | The Tenth Muse | 222 | 4.3 | Like Whitney, neither neoclassical nor lyric...But Bradstreet's verse is littered with scriptural and classical names/allusions that seem too rich to pass up |
1680 | Killigrew, Anne | Poems by Mrs. Anne Killigrew | 120 | 1.7 | |
1703 | Egerton, Sarah | Poems on Several Occasions | 155 | 3.2 | |
1734 | Barber, Mary | Poems on Several Occasions | 340 | 4.6 | This may be pushing the upper limits in terms of total pages... But there are tons of contemporary names in it |
1740 | Dixon, Sarah | Poems on Several Occasions | 237 | 4.1 | |
1750 | Jones, Mary | Miscellanies in Prose and Verse | 460 | 4.4 | If Barber is pushing the length limit, then this definitely is as well |
1773 | Wheatley, Philis | Poems on Various Subjects | 128 | 1.9 | |
1790 | Francis, Anne | Miscellaneous Poems | 278 | 1.4 | |
1791 | Benger, Elizabeth | The Female Geniad | 64 | 5.7 | |
1793 | Jones, Anna Maria | Poems of Anna Maria | 70 | 3.3 | |
1801 | Owenson, Sydney | Poems | 158 | 1.8 | |
1814 | Lickbarrow, Isabella | Poetical Effusions | 144 | 2.6 | |
1824 | Robinson, Mary | Poetical Works of the Late Mrs. Mary Robinson | 232 | 5.6 | |
1833 | Moise, Penina | Fancy's Sketch Book | 161 | 0.8 |
These texts span roughly the second half of the WWO period, and contain some scriptural names as well as numerous historical, classical, and mythological names. Note that the "names per page" number is not particularly useful, since personal names that are encoded as part of subscriber lists are inflating those numbers.
Prose "essays" (broadly conceived)
Date | Author | Title | Total Pages | Names/Page | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1589 | Anger, Jane | Jane Anger Her Protection for Women | 23 | 3.6 | |
1617 | Munda, Constantia | The Worming of a Mad Dog | 41 | 2.2 | |
1673 | Makin, Bathsua | An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen | 43 | 6.9 | |
1706 | Astell, Mary | Reflections Upon Marriage | 118 | 1.0 | |
1790 | Murray, Judith Sargent | On the Equality of the Sexes | 8 | 0.8 | |
1798 | Wollestoncraft, Mary | On Poetry, and...the Beauties of Nature | 16 | 0.4 | |
1799 | Robinson, Mary | Thoughts on the Condition of Women | 108 | 3.1 | |
1841 | Plato, Ann | Essays | 109 | 1.1 |
"Essay" is an extremely capacious term throughout our period, making it a bit difficult to apply here with any real consistency. I've taken it in a very general sense to mean any relatively short prose text that meditates on, responds to, or advocates a particular political, social, or cultural argument and advances clear argument or set of principles --- or articulates a specific intellectual position --- of its own. Unfortunately, some of the texts that might be richest or most informative in terms of personal names are simply too large to use for this project (I'm thinking specifically of The Female Spectator and The Gleaner).