John Banks

Who was John Banks?

John Banks was an English playwright of the Restoration era. His works concentrated on historical dramas, and his plays were twice suppressed because of their implications, or supposed implications, for the contemporaneous political situation.

Virtually nothing is known about Banks's early life; his date of birth has been estimated on the basis of his later biography. He studied law at the New Inn, one of the minor Inns of Chancery attached to the Middle Temple. Banks's first play was The Rival Kings of 1677, written in imitation of Nathaniel Lee's The Rival Queens of the same year. Banks followed this with The Destruction of Troy, which was staged by the Duke's Company at their Dorset Garden Theatre in November 1678 and printed the following year. His The Unhappy Favourite, or the Earl of Essex was his first major success. Banks was considered a crude writer who could nonetheless, at his best, create powerful drama.

His next play, however, was judged more crude than powerful: The Innocent Usurper, based on the life of Lady Jane Grey, was rejected by both the King's Company and the Duke's Company. And his subsequent attempt, The Island Queens, or the Death of Mary Queen of Scotland, was banned on political grounds.