John Phillip (fl.1561) was an English poet and dramatist of the Elizabethan era.
He is known for his play The Commodye of Pacient and Meeke Grissill (AKA The Plaie of Pacient Grisell), said to have been written in the late 1550s, and possibly first performed by a children's company at Nonsuch Palace in Surrey for Queen Elizabeth I as part of a special entertainment in August 1559.
[citation needed] It is based on a tale from Boccaccio's Decameron, which features also in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: that of patient Griselda, who displays continuing devotion to her husband despite his brutal attempts to test her loyalty.
[1] His name also appears as John Phillipp in the quarto of The Play of Patient Grisell.
[1] The lullaby "Be still, my sweet sweeting" from The Play of Patient Grisell (lines 1383–98) has been set to music several times: