Yet some to this will say that they But this vain saying to banish, We will prove welcome here best dish. Thorough all the cheer to furnish, What is this welcome now to tell? Wherefore all doubts to relinquish, Now as we have in words here spent As heartily as heart can wish; JOHN STILL. 1543-1607. [THERE is little known of the life of John Still beyond the incidents of his preferments in the church. He was the son of William Still, of Grantham, in Lincolnshire, where he was born in 1543. He took the degree of M.A. at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was made Margaret Professor in 1570; and in subsequent years was elected Master of St. John's, and afterwards of Trinity College. In 1571 he was presented to the Rectory of Hadleigh, in Suffolk, commissioned one of the Deans of Bocking in 1572, collated to the vicarage of Eastmarham, in Yorkshire, in 1573, and installed Canon of Westminster and Dean of Sudbury in 1576. He was chosen prolocutor of convocation in 1588, promoted in 1592 to the see of Bath and Wells, and held the bishopric till his death in 1607, having amassed a large fortune by the Mendip lead mines in the diocese, and endowed an almshouse in Wales, to which he bequeathed £500. Bishop Still was twice married, and left a large family. His excellent character is attested by Sir John Harrington, who says, that he was a man to whom he never came, but he grew more religious, and from whom he never went but he parted more instructed.' The comedy of Gammer Gurton's Needle was originally printed in 1575, but written several years earlier. It is composed in rhyme, and regularly divided into acts and scenes. The plot is meagre and silly, the whole of the five acts being occupied by a hunt after a needle which Gammer Gurton is supposed to have mislaid, but which is found, by way of catastrophe, in a garment she had been mending. The altercations, quarrels, mishaps, and cross-purposes, arising out of this circumstance constitute the entire substance of the piece. The dialogue is coarse, even for the age in which it was written, and the humour seldom rises above the level of clowns and buffoons.] GAMMER GURTON'S NEEDLE. DRINKING SONG.* ACK and side go bare, go bare, BACK Both foot and hand go cold: * Warton, in his History of Poets, iii. 206, quotes this song as the first Chanson à boire of any merit in our language. He says it But belly, God send thee good ale enough, I can not eat, but little meat, appeared in 1551. This must be an oversight, if Still is to be considered the author, as he was then only eight years old. The comedy was produced in 1566, and printed for the first time in 1575. This song, observes Warton,' has a vein of ease and humour which we should not expect to have been inspired by the simple beverage of those times.' Still less might it have been expected from the writer of the dialogue of this piece, the versification of which is harsh and lumbering. Whether Bishop Still really wrote the song, may be doubted. Mr. Dyce, in his edition of Skelton's works, gives another version of it from a MS. in his possession, which he says is certainly of an earlier date than 1575. The differences are very curious and interesting; but the most striking point of variance is the omission of the verse referring to Tyb, Gammer Gurton's maid, which suggests the probability that the song may have been originally an independent composition, of which Bishop Still availed himself, adapting it to the comedy by curtailments and a new verse with a personal allusion. There are many instances of a similar use being made of popular ballads by the old dramatists. How far this conjecture is justifiable, must be determined by a comparison between the above version and that given by Mr. Dyce, which is here subjoined in the orthography of the original. backe & syde goo bare goo bare bothe hande & fote goo colde but belly god sende the good ale inowghe But sure I think, that I can drink I stuff my skin so full within, I love noo roste but a browne toste a lytyll breade shall do me steade nor froste nor snowe nor wynde I trow I am so wrapped within & lapped I care ryte nowghte I take no thowte have I goode dryncke I surely thyncke for trwly than I feare noman be he neuer so bolde when I am armed and throwly warmed with joly goode ale & old. backe & syde, &c. but nowe & than I curse & banne they make ther ale so small god geve them care and evill to faare they strye the malte and all sooche pevisshe pewe I tell yowe trwe not for a c[r]ovne of golde ther commethe one syppe within my lyppe whether hyt be newe or olde. backe & syde, &c. good ale & stronge makethe me amonge full joconde & full lyte that ofte I slepe & take no kepe from mornynge vntyll nyte then starte I vppe & fle to the cuppe the ryte waye on I holde my thurste to staunche I fyll my paynche with joly goode ale & olde. backe & syde, &c. and kytte my wife that as her lyfe lovethe well goode ale to seke Back and side go bare, go bare, Both foot and hand go cold: But belly, God send thee good ale enough, Whether it be new or old. I love no roast, but a nut-brown toast, A little bread shall do me stead, Much bread I not desire. No frost nor snow, no wind, I trow, I am so wrapt, and throwly* lapt, Back and side go bare, &c. And Tyb my wife, that as her life Back and side go bare, &c. full ofte drynkythe she that ye maye se then doth she troule to me the bolle as a goode malte worme sholde & saye swete harte I have take my parte of joly goode ale & olde. backe & syde, &c. they that do dryncke tyll they nodde & wyncke even as goode fellowes shulde do they shall notte mysse to have the blysse that goode ale hathe browghte them to & all poore soules that skowre blacke bolles & them hathe lustely trowlde god save the lyves of them & ther wyves backe & syde, &c. * Thoroughly. |