William Painter's place in English literary history is derived from the collection of tales he translated into English from diverse sources--most notably Matteo Bandello, Margaret of Navarre, and Giovanni Boccaccio--which he brought together as The Palace of Pleasure (1566). This collection of "pleasant histories and excellent novels" achieved immediate popularity and has been credited with inspiring Roger Ascham's attack in The Schoolmaster (1570) against "bawdy" translations of Italian works. The Palace of Pleasure is notable both because it inaugurated the fashion for translating Continental novellas, inspiring imitators such as Geoffrey Fenton and George Pettie in the years following its first publication, and because it was an important source for William Shakespeare, John Webster, and other dramatists of the period. Tales found in The Palace of Pleasure which later appeared in dramatic form on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage include "The Duchess of Malfi," "Romeo and Julietta," and "Giletta of Narbonne...