d half a dozen or so from the Bishop
of Agen. Thus a book which was originally intended to be another
contribution to the New Learning of classical antiquity turned out to be
the most important representative in English of the Newest Learning of
Italy. With the change of plan came a change of title, and the "City of
Civility," which was to have appeared in 1562, was replaced by the
"Palace of Pleasure" in 1566.[14]

[Footnote 14: The Dedication is dated near the Tower of London
1 January 1566, which must have been new style (introduced into
France two years before).]

The success of the book seems to have been immediate. We have seen above
Ascham's indignant testimony to this, and the appearance of the Second
Tome, half as large again as the other, within about eighteen months of
the First, confirms his account. This Second Tome was practically the
Bandello volume; more than half of the tales, and those by far the
longest, were taken from him, through the medium of his French
translators, Boaistuau and Belleforest. Within a couple of years another
edition was called for of the First Tome, which appeared in 1569, with
the addition of five more stories from the Heptameron, from which eleven
were already in the first edition. Thus the First Tome might be called
the Heptameron volume, and the second, that of Bandello. Boccaccio is
pretty evenly divided between the two, and the remainder is made up of
classic tales and anecdotes and a few _novelle_ of Ser Giovanni and
Straparola. Both Tomes were reprinted in what may be called the
definitive edition of the work in 1575.

Quite apart from its popularity and its influence on the English stage,
on which we shall have more to say shortly, Painter's book deserves a
larger place in the history of English Literature than has as yet been
given to it. It introduced to England some of the best novels of
Boccaccio, Bandello, and Queen Margaret, three of the best _raconteurs_
of short stories the world has ever had. It is besides the largest work
in English prose that appeared between the _Morte Darthur_ and North's
Plutarch.[15] Painter's style bears the impress of French models. Though
professing to be from Italian _novellieri_, it is mainly derived from
French translations of them. Indeed, but for the presence of
translations from Ser Giovanni and Straparola, it might be doubtful
whether Painter translated from the Italian at all. He claims however to
do this from Bocc