STILL, JOHN, said to be the author of Gammer Gurton's Needle, was a native of Grantham in Lincolnshire, and was born in 1543. He became a student of Christ's College, Cambridge, where he duly graduated and took orders. He was appointed in 1570 Lady Margaret's professor in his university, subsequently held livings in Suffolk and Yorkshire, and was master successively of St John's College and of Trinity College. Still was elevated to the bishopric of Bath and Wells in 1592, and after enjoying considerable fame as a preacher and disputant, he died, leaving a large fortune from lead-mines discovered in the Mendip Hills.
To Bishop Still is ascribed the authorship, on somewhat slight grounds, of the earliest comedy but one in the English language. This is Gammer Gurton's Needle, which bears on the title-page, "Made by Mr S., Master of Arts," which was first published in 1575. Perhaps the introduction to the second act of that coarse play, which consists of the oldest drinking-song in the English language, has made the jolly bishop more widely known than his loudest disputations would ever have rendered him. This exquisite old song, commencing,
"I cannot eat but little meat
My stomach is not good,"
has been found, on more recent research, to belong to an earlier date than the era of Bishop Still. (See Dyce's Life of Skelton, vol. i., pp. 7-9.)