John Payne (1842-1916) was an English poet and translator, from Devon. Initially he pursued a legal career, and associated with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Later he became involved with limited edition publishing, and the Villon Society. He is now best known for his translation of Boccaccio"s Decameron and The Arabian Nights. Amongst his other works are The Masque of Shadows and Other Poems (1870), Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp (1889), The Quatrains of Omar Kheyyam of Nisahpour (1898), The Poems of Hafiz (1901), The Descent of the Dove and Other Poems (1902), Stories of Boccaccio (1903) and Hamid the Luckless and Other Tales in Verse (1904).