[Footnote 1:  Mr. Theophilus Cibber being about to publish, in a work entirely undertaken by himself the Lives and Characters of all our Eminent Actors and Actresses, from Shakespear to the present time; leaves to the other Gentlemen concerned in this collection, the accounts of some players who could not be omitted herein, as Poets.]

[Footnote 2:  Cibber’s apology.]

[Footnote 3:  Biograph.  Brittan. from the information of Southern.]

[Footnote 4:  Cibber’s Life.]

[Footnote 5:  Cibber’s Life.]

[Footnote 6:  Memoirs of Vanbrugh’s Life.]

[Footnote 7:  History of the stage.]

[Footnote 8:  We acknowledge a mistake, which we committed in the life of Mavloe, concerning Betterton.  It was there observed that he formed himself upon Alleyn, the famous founder of Dulwich-Hospital, and copied his theatrical excellencies:  which, upon a review of Betterton’s life, we find could not possibly happen as Alleyn was dead several years before Betterton was born:  The observation should have been made of Hart.]

* * * * *

JOHN BANKS.

This gentleman was bred a lawyer, and was a member of the society at New Inn.  His genius led him to make several attempts in dramatic poetry, in which he had various success; but even when he met with the greatest encouragement, he was very sensible of his error, in quitting the profitable practice of the law, to pursue the entertainments of the stage, but he was fired with a thirst of fame which reconciled to his mind the many uneasy sensations, to which the precarious success of his plays, and the indigence of his profession naturally exposed him:  Mr. Banks no doubt has gained one part of his design by commencing poet, namely, that of being remembered after death, which Pope somewhere calls the poor estate of wits:  For this gentleman has here a place amongst the poets, while nine tenths of the lawyers of his time, now sleep with their fathers secure in oblivion, and of whom we can only say, they lived, and died.

Mr. Banks’s genius was wholly turned for tragedy; his language is certainly unpoetical, and his numbers unharmonious; but he seems not to have been ignorant of the dramatic art:  For in all his plays he has very forcibly rouzed the passions, kept the scene busy, and never suffered his characters to languish.

In the year 1684 Mr. Banks offered a tragedy to the stage called the Island Queens, or the Death of Mary Queen of Scots, which, it seems, was rejected, whether from its want of merit, or motives of a political kind, we cannot now determine, but Mr. Banks thought proper then to publish it.  In the year 1706, he obtained the favour of Queen Anne to command it to be acted at the Theatre-Royal, which was done with success, for it is really a very moving tragedy.  It has been often revived, and performed at the Theatres, with no inconsiderable applause.