November – Fantasticks

Fantasticks

by Nicholas Breton

(c1554-1626)

The Second in a series  from a long forgotten book.   November just to cheer you.

Breton’s words chronicle the change of seasons

November

It is now November, and according to the old Proverbe, Let the Thresher take his flayle, and the ship no more sayle: for the high winds and the rough seas will try the ribs of the Shippe, and the hearts of the Sailers.  Now come the Countrey people all wet to the Market, and the toyling Carriers are pittifully moyled.  The young Herne and the Shoulerd are now fat for the great Feast, & the Woodcocke begins to make toward the Cockeshoot.  The Warriners now begin to plie their harvest, and the Butcher, after a good bargaine drinks a health to the Grasier.  The Cooke and the Comfitmaker make ready for Christmas, & the Minstrels in the Countrey beat their boyes for false fingring.  Schollers before breakfast have a cold stomacke to their bookes, and a Master without Art is fit for an A.B.C.  A red herring and a cup of Sacke, make warre in a weake stomacke, and the poore mans fast is better than the Gluttons surfet.  Trenchers and dishes are now necessary servants, and a locke to the Cupboord keepes a bit for a neede.  Now beginnes the Goshauke to weede the wood of the Phesant, and the Mallard loves not to heare the belles of the Faulcon: the Winds now are cold, and the Ayre chill, and the poore die through want of Charitie.  Butter and Cheese beginne to rayse their prices, and Kitchen stuffe is a commoditie, that every man is not acquainted with.  In summe, with a conceit of the chilling cold of it, I thus conclude in it:  I hold it the discomfort of Nature, and Reason patience.

Farewell.

 

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Author: Low Wattage

Expat Welshman, educated (somewhat) in UK, left before it became fashionable to do so. Now a U.S. Citizen, and recent widower, playing with retirement and house remodeling, living in Delaware and rural Maryland (weekends).

25 thoughts on “November – Fantasticks”

  1. I have
    Herne as a Heron (presumably eaten at that time, can’t imagine why)
    Shoulerd as a Shoveller Duck?
    Warriner as a Watchman (but this does not fit the context, maybe someone can do better?)
    Grasier a grazer of cattle for market (A Stockyard in modern yank)

  4. Low Wattage :

    Herne as a Heron (presumably eaten at that time, can’t imagine why)

    No, I do not think so. Herne was the Hunter. He lived near Windsor. For a while I worked in Slough. Our accountant was married to a man who wrote a book about Herne. I think he first appears in Merry Wives Of Windsor. In that play was a character called Mistress Quickly. I once sailed on a yacht called Mistress Quickly.

    And here she is

  6. I have a problem here. At Speech Day every year the whole school was required to sing a song, a different song every year. except for yours truly who was absolutely forbidden to sing because of alleged chronic tone deafness. I remember miming the “salt stained smoke stack” thingey, but one year we did the <"I come from haunt of coot……" and now I can’t find any reference to that verse on t’interweb. It woukd be nice to bicker down the valley once again, so has anyone any clues?

    OZ

  12. Please excuse my enormous red herring. I can’t think what possessed me to deviate towards Herne the Hunter, other than it was late on a Friday night. Still, there is now a link between ghosts, boats, birds and bards which may come in useful one day.

  13. Originally a ‘warrener’ was a person who kept a rabbit warren rather than a game keeper.

  15. Thank you Boadicea, the keeper of warrens makes much more sense in this context, Breton’s spelling variations do not make the translations easy.

  18. Warrener is still used in Wales.

    IE the use of terriers (generally JRs) and snares and nets to catch rabbits in a rabbit warren. Many farmers I know let lads from the Valleys come and do it at weekends.

  19. Seems like some here need to brush up on archaic vocabulary here.

    Try The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson.
    Written by him as a bodice ripper of the day to drum up money to pay his mother’s medical bills.
    He was notorious for his use of extremely difficult vocabulary ( even then) that the average middle classes could not understand but he needed to sell a lot of copies. Each sentence is repeated, each time with less and less taxing words. By the end of it all words are therefore decipherable from context. The middle classes could therefore understand it , there was great kudos at the time to be able to purchase and understand the book. He sold a lot of copies!
    Short of that read the metaphysical poets!

  20. CO: Are Warrener and Warriner two different words? My simple dictionary lists Warriner (one who warns?) as a watchman, or gamekeeper and does not list Warrener at all. Or did Warriner (gamekeeper) acquire its broader meaning and spelling from the older Warrener (keeper of warrens).

    Incidentally, Warrener/Warrener was not a word I ever heard in Monmouthshire.

  21. A warren or warrin originally referred more generally to a piece of enclosed land for breeding game, animals and birds. It then became more specific and tended to be applied to rabbits.

  22. Arrers, you don’t mean, surely that our resident expert on the origins of langauge may be incorrect?! 🙂

  23. Good grief, Janus. Would I ever suggest such a thing?

    But meanings of words change and there are references to warreners in Chaucer’s time. Some say it originated from the Old French “warir”, which is usually translated as defend or keep.

  24. LW, interchangeable I would have thought, both having descended from ara’s 23.
    It is quite easy to see the progression of both the word and the meaning throughout history.
    But it always retains the element of a piece of land that acts as a larder for game with a keeper/user
    Just so happens that rabbit nowadays is not popular on the menu and the warren’s use has become a country sport not an essential food supply.
    This is a classic example of my objection to Wiki etc which tends to lay out didactic and often simplistic definitions/explanations. Progressive contextual nuanced mutations are completely lost in the search for electronic brevity/clarity.

    LW I have heard the word used in farming circles regularly in Carms, also ‘gone warrening’

  25. “Progressive contextual nuanced mutations” – woo-ooh! Do you have the English for that?

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