accio, and as he owns the aid of a French "crib" in the
case of Bandello, the claim may be admitted. His translations from the
French are very accurate, and only err in the way of too much
literalness.[16] From a former dominie one would have expected a far
larger proportion of Latinisms than we actually find. As a rule, his
sentences are relatively short, and he is tolerably free from the vice
of the long periods that were brought into vogue by "Ciceronianism." He
is naturally free from Euphuism and for a very good reason, since
_Euphues and his Englande_ was not published for another dozen years or
so. The recent suggestion of Dr. Landmann and others that Euphuism came
from the influence of Guevara would seem to be negatived by the fact
that the "Letters of Trajan" in the Second Tome of Painter are taken
from Guevara and are no more Euphuistic than the rest of the volume.

[Footnote 15: Always with the exception of exceptions, the
Bishop's Bible.]

[Footnote 16: Mr. P. A. Daniel, in his edition of Painter's
"Romeo and Juliet," in the New Shakespere Society's _Originals and
Analogues_, i., 1876, gives the few passages in which Painter has
misunderstood Boaistuau. For lexicographical use, however, it
would be well to consult Painter's original for any very striking
peculiarities of his vocabulary.]

Painter's volume is practically the earliest volume of prose
translations from a modern language into English in the true Elizabethan
period after the influence of Caxton in literary importation had died
away with Bourchier the translator of Froissart and of Huon of Bordeaux.
It set the ball rolling in this direction, and found many followers,
some of whom may be referred to as having had an influence only second
to that of Painter in providing plots for the Elizabethan Drama. There
can be little doubt that it was Painter set the fashion, and one of his
chief followers recognised this, as we shall see, on his title page.

The year in which Painter's Second Tome appeared saw George (afterwards
Sir George) Fenton's _Certaine Tragicall Discourses writtene oute of
Frenche and Latine_ containing fourteen "histories." As four of these
are identical with tales contained in Painter's Second Tome it is
probable that Fenton worked independently, though it was doubtless the
success of the "Palace of Pleasure" that induced Thomas Marshe,
Painter's printer, to undertake a similar volume from Fenton. The