Robinson Crusoe's Calendar. He every day cut a notch in his post
1818
Hand-tinted copper-engraving
8.2 cm high by 5.1 cm wide, framed
Pages: ii, 195 p., [12] leaves of illustrations
Source: Frontispiece for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, facing title-page [Plate 5].
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
And now being about to enter into a melancholy relation of a scene of silent life, such, perhaps, as was never heard of in the world before, I shall take it from its beginning, and continue it in its order. It was by my account the 30th of September, when, in the manner as above said, I first set foot upon this horrid island; when the sun, being to us in its autumnal equinox, was almost over my head; for I reckoned myself, by observation, to be in the latitude of nine degrees twenty-two minutes north of the line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came into my thoughts that I should lose my reckoning of time for want of books, and pen and ink, and should even forget the Sabbath days; but to prevent this, I cut with my knife upon a large post, in capital letters— and making it into a great cross, I set it up on the shore where I first landed— "I came on shore here on the 30th September 1659."
Upon the sides of this square post I cut every day a notch with my knife, and every seventh notch was as long again as the rest, and every first day of the month as long again as that long one; and thus I kept my calendar, or weekly, monthly, and yearly reckoning of time.[Chapter IV, "First Few Weeks on the Island," p. 80]
As the title-page announces the addition of "Reflections, Religious and Moral," it comes as no surprise that Crusoe's calendar resembles a Protestant cross, and that the iconography is repeated to the left of Crusoe's stockade, even though the calendar is actually situated on the beach, as in the Cruikshank vignette of 1831.
Left: Stothard's 1790 realisation of the solitary and reflective protagonist, Robinson Crusoe at work in his cave (Chapter IV, "First Few Weeks on the Island," copper-engraving). Right: The Cassell's illustrator, using Stothard's copper-plate engraving as his model, shows Crusoe keeping track of time by recording events on paper in Crusoe writing his Journal, and therefore providing an image of the protagonist as author. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Above: George Cruikshank's vignette that exemplifies Crusoe's attempts to replicate European constructs such as months upon the tropical island, Crusoe and his calendar on the beach (1831). [Click on image to enlarge it.]
Many thanks for the assistance of the staff at Special Collections and University Archives, particularly John Frederick, Library Assistant, McPherson Library, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Defoe, Daniel. (adapted). The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. A New and Improved Edition, interspersed with Reflections, Religious and Moral. Adorned with Engravings. London: J. Harris, St. Paul's Church Yard, 1818.
Last modified 14 February 2018
