Physic

Olde wines and sweete, are thought most meete, to breede good blood, and warme thee,

From lust abstaine, all bathes refraine,

sweete spice now little harme thee. (Watson 1600, B6v)

The illnesses prevalent with the Sun in Sagittarius are “hote Feavers, Opthalmia, bleared eyes, and falls from hie places, and from horses, & c.” (Alleyn 1606, C3v). Hot meats, hot drinks (including wine) to “nourish the blood” (Alleyn 1606, C4r), “Spicery” in one’s “cates” (John Rudston 1615, A8r), and warm clothing are recommended as the weather cools. A surprising number of almanacs are careful to recommend the (surely obvious) advantage of going “dry shod” in order to fend off the “rewme and pose,” or head colds (Alleyn 1606, C4r). The descriptions of climate and medical dangers for the month stress the unremitting rain, cold winds, and chill “Ayre”: “In summe,” Nicholas Breton writes, “with a conceit of the chilling cold of it...I hold it the discomfort of Nature, and Reasons patience” (Fantastickes, Dlr-v). Because of these meteorological conditions, “November breeds rhumes that troubles the head” (Mathew 1612, A8r). It is a transitional month when it comes to physic, the last safe month in which to take medicine until March, “except necessitie doe compell” (Alleyn 1606, C4r). The calendar poetry also cautions against phlebotomy and baths, though they are not entirely forbidden, and the always (it seems) perilous dangers of “lust” are especially grave this month (Watson 1600, B7v).

The Church Calendar

Seasons and holy days

Advent Sunday is the fourth Sunday before Christmas; it falls on November 27th-December 3rd, depending on the day of the week of Christmas each year. The Advent season ends on Christmas Day. Although the Book of Common Prayer is primarily structured around the Julian Calendar—the cycle of readings begins each January 1st—the schedule of Sunday and Holy Day collects and readings begins with Advent, which is the official start of the liturgical year.

The two red-letter holy days for November fall on the first and last days of the month. For November 1st, All Saint’s Day, the collect avoids any whisper of this holy day’s medieval importance by de-emphasizing prayers for the dead or adoration of the saints, acknowledging instead the saints as models that Christians should “folowe... in al vertues, and godly living” (BCP, L9v). November 30th, St. Andrew’s Day, often (though not always) falls within the season of Advent, and sometimes on Advent Sunday itself; that Apostle is especially notable because he “redeley obeied the calling of thy sonne Jesus Christ, & followed him without delay” (BCP, K6r).

Nine saints are commemorated in the Book of Common Prayer for this month; two are virgin martyrs: the famous St. Katherine who was tortured on a wheel, on November 25th, and the lesser known Roman martyr St. Cecilia on November 22nd. Four are bishops: St. Martin (November 11th) and St. Brice (November 13th), both of Tours, St. Hugh of Lincoln (November 17th), and St. Malo or Machute, possibly a Welsh bishop active in Brittany (November 15th). The hermit St. Leonard was commemorated on November 6th, and the Pope St. Clement on the 23rd. Finally, the translation of the popular St. Edward, Anglo-Saxon King and Martyr, was noted on November 20th.

Lectionary

November’s Gospel readings are in Luke and John, with the Epistle repeating the third cycle (last read in July) from Colossians through Hebrews. The Old Testament readings come from Ecclesiastes, Barnabus, and Isaiah.

Fairs

The number of principal fairs in November, around ninety, roughly equals that for October, though in this month, they are spread widely through the calendar. The most popular days include St. Andrew’s Day, November 30th, with approximately twenty-one, St. Leonard’s Day, November 6th, with thirteen, St. Martin’s Day, November 11th, with ten; and St. Clement’s Day, November 23rd, with nine.

Law Terms

November is the month of Michaelmas Term, which begins on the 9th or 10th of October, and continues until the 28th or 29th of November.

Festive Traditions and Pastimes

November 1st, All Saint’s or All Hallow’s, was part of a three-day Hallowtide season that had historically been a Christian feast celebrating the dead. That commemoration included the traditions for All Hallow’s Eve on October 30th (described above, in October), All Saint’s itself, and All Soul’s, on November 2nd. In the late middle ages, a rich set of traditional activities for this period developed, which included dressing in mourning attire, marking All Soul’s Day with bonfires and food (cakes and wine), and most importantly, ringing the church bells all night on

All Saint’s Night. These activities were greatly curtailed at the Reformation in light of the Protestant denial of both purgatory and the notion that the activities of the living could succor the souls of the dead.²⁶

November is also host to two English political holidays: November 17th, Accession Day, commemorating Elizabeth’s accession to the throne in 1558, and after 1605, November 5th, known in the period as Gunpowder Day (and later as Guy Fawkes), marking the deliverance of King James and other members of his government from the Gunpowder conspiracy. Both came to be traditionally marked with bonfires.

November