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.

Works

• The Masque of Shadows and other poems (1870)
• Intaglios; sonnets (1871)
• Songs of Life and Death. (1872)
• Lautrec: A Poem (1878)
• The Poems of Francois Villon.(1878)
• New Poems (1880)
• The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (1882) translation in nine volumes
• Tales from the Arabic (1884)
• The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio (1886) translation in three volumes
• Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp; Zein Ul Asnam and The King of the Jinn: (1889) editor and translator
• The Persian Letters of Montesquieu (1897) translator
• The Quatrains of Omar Kheyyam of Nisahpour (1898)
• Poems of Master Francois Villon of Paris (1900)
• The Poems of Hafiz (1901)
• Oriental Tales: The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night [and other tales]. (1901) verse and prose translation in 15 volumes, edited by Leonard C. Montesquieu Smithers
• The Descent of the Dove and other poems (1902)
• Poetical Works (1902) two volumes
• Stories of Boccaccio (1903)
• Vigil and Vision: New Sonnets (1903)
• Hamid the Luckless and other tales in verse (1904)
• Songs of Consolation: New Poems (1904)
• Sir Winfrith and other poems (1905)
• Selections from the Poetry of John Payne (1906) selected by Tracy and Lucy Robinson
• Flowers of France: Romantic Period (1906)
• Flowers of France, The Renaissance Period 1907
• Flowers of France: the Latter Days (1913)
• Flowers of France: The Classic Period (1914)
• The Way of the Winepress (1920)
• The Autobiography of John Payne of Villon Society Fame, Poet and Scholar (1926)