John Payne
John Payne was a notable figure in the literary and translation world, born in 1842 in England. He was the son of a linguist and an accomplished pianist, growing up in a family that encouraged his early talent for languages. By the age of ten, he was already translating classic texts, and despite leaving school at thirteen due to financial difficulties, he continued to master several languages independently. Throughout his career, Payne held various roles, including clerk and architect, while also training in law, during which he mingled with prominent literary figures such as George Eliot and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Payne is particularly recognized for his poetry from the 1870s, with his collection "Intaglios" published in 1871, earning him admiration from French critic Stéphane Mallarmé. He was instrumental in founding the Villon Society, which published translations, including his notable works of "The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night" and Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron." His translations significantly influenced English literature, especially by including explicit content that had been omitted in previous versions. Despite facing health challenges later in life, including blindness, Payne's literary legacy endures, with his admirers forming the John Payne Society to promote his works after his death at seventy-three. Today, he is best remembered for his translations, which remain influential in the literary canon.
On this Page
Subject Terms
John Payne
Poet and Translator
- Born: August 23, 1842
- Birthplace: England
- Died: 1916
Biography
John Payne was born in 1842 to John Edward Hawkins-Payne, a linguist and inventor, and Betsy, an accomplished pianist. One of six children, Payne lived with his family first in London and later in Bristol. He was translating classic texts by the time he was ten. At age thirteen, his father’s ruined finances forced him to leave school and take a job. He had mastered several languages by that time and later learned many others on his own.
As a young man, Payne worked as a clerk, auctioneer, newspaper office assistant, and architect, among other posts. He apprenticed with a London solicitor at age nineteen and began a legal career around 1867. While he was in training, he became associated with many of the major literary and artistic figures of his day, including George Eliot and the Pre-Raphaelite painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He also became close friends with the illustrator John Trivett Nettleship and the poet Arthur O’Shaughnessy. The three men, dubbed “The Triumvirate,” socialized together and wrote poems in praise of one another. Around 1868, Payne met Mrs. Helen Snee, a married woman whom he and The Triumvirate idealized and upheld as a muse. Upon her death from phthisis in 1880, Payne abandoned his poetry and worked almost exclusively on translations. Payne is remembered as shy and quite nearsighted.
Payne produced most of his poetry in the 1870’s, and much of the early work was well received. Intaglios, a collection of sonnets, was published in 1871 and won him the admiration and friendship of the noted French critic and poet Stéphane Mallarmé. In 1877, Payne initiated the founding of the Villon Society, a group dedicated to publishing translations, the first being Payne’s translation of poetry by French author François Villon. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night: Now First Completely Done into English Prose and Verse, from the Original Arabic appeared in nine volumes between 1882 and 1884. Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron, translated from the Italian, was published in 1886. Until 1930, Payne’s volume of The Decameron was the only English version that included the explicit sexual passages contained in the original.
Payne penned a series of memoranda in 1902 that later became The Autobiography of John Payne of Villon Society Fame, Poet and Scholar, an accounting that extolled his prodigious language and translation skills. Payne began suffering poor health around 1913. He went blind two years later. He died at age seventy-three, shortly after completing The Marvelous History of Seif ben Dhi Yezn, King of Yemen, a translation project that has not been published.
Payne’s admirers founded the John Payne Society in 1905 and endeavored to popularize his writings. They published two posthumous collections of his work, and one of the Society’s founders wrote a flattering biography about him that appeared in 1919. Payne wrote prolific amounts of poetry, but is best remembered today for his translations, most notably of The Arabian Nights and The Decameron.