William Painter (author)

William Painter (or Paynter; 1540? – February 1595, in London) was an English author and translator.

Painter was long believed to be a native of Kent due to confusion with a contemporary namesake who matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1554.

Painter was married about 1565 to Dorothy Bonham, with whom he had at least five known children - a son and four daughters. By 1587 their son Anthony had joined his father in his government work.

Painter made an oral will dated 14 February 1594 and died between 19 and 22 February 1595. He was buried in St Olave Hart Street, London, not far from the Tower.

In 1561 he became clerk of the ordnance in the Tower of London, a post he was to hold for the remainder of his life. In 1566 the lieutenant-general of the ordnance, Edward Randolph, supplemented Painter's income by granting him an annuity and pension.

Throughout his career, there were accusations of fraud and abuse of his position to amass a personal fortune out of the public funds. This came to a point in 1586 when the surveyor of the ordnance, John Powell, accused Painter and two others of peculation (embezzlement). As his co-accused were already deceased, only Painter could defend himself and he confessed that he owed the government a sum of just over a thousand pounds. Although Painter offered to repay the amount, the debt was not discharged until the time of Painter's grandson due delays in his lifetime, and the discovery of more discrepancies following his death. It is notable that the accusations of embezzlement are formed of charges and countercharges between government officials, underlining the endemic corruption in the Elizabethan civil service.

Painter began translating works in 1558 with a translation of Nicholas à Moffan's Soltani Soymanni Turcorum Imperatoris horrendum facinus into English, under the title of Horrible and Cruell Murder of Sultan Solyman. This work was later to become Novel 34 in his The Palace of Pleasure.

The first volume of his The Palace of Pleasure appeared in 1566, and was dedicated to the earl of Warwick. It included sixty tales, and was followed in the next year by a second volume containing thirty-four new ones. A second improved edition in 1575 contained seven new stories. Painter borrows from Herodotus, Boccaccio, Plutarch, Aulus Gellius, Aelian, Livy, Tacitus, Quintus Curtius; from Giovanni Battista Giraldi, Matteo Bandello, Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, Giovanni Francesco Straparola, Queen Marguerite de Navarre and others.

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