BANKS, JOHN, a dramatic writer, was bred to the law, and belonged to the society of Gray's Inn; but this profession not suiting his natural disposition, he quitted it for the service of the muses. His turn led him entirely to tragedy, in which his merit is of a peculiar kind; for at the same time that his language must be confessed to be extremely unpoetical, his numbers uncouth and unharmonious, his characters very far from being strongly marked or distinguished, and his episodes extremely irregular, yet it is impossible to avoid being deeply affected by the representation, and even by the reading, of his tragic pieces. These are, 1. Albion Queens. 2. Cyrus the Great. 3. Destruction of Troy. 4. Innocent Usurper. 5. Island Queens, which is only the Albion Queens altered. 6. Rival Kings. 7. Virtue Betrayed. 8. Unhappy Favourite. The Albion Queens was rejected by the managers in 1684, but was acted by Queen Anne's command in 1706. Neither the time of the birth nor that of the death of this author is ascertained. His remains, however, lie interred in the church of St James's, Westminster.