BANKS, JOHN, a dramatic writer in the time of Queen Anne, was bred to the law, and belonged to the society of Gray's Inn; but he early quitted the study of the law for the service of the muses. He wrote several tragedies, which, though evincing considerable pathetic powers, have otherwise no great literary merit. One of these, the Albion Queens, was acted, by Queen Anne's command, in 1706.