John Poole, an English dramatist, born about 1786, died near London, Feb. 5, 1872. He wrote "Hamlet Travestie" (1810); "Romeo and Juliet Travestie" (1812); "The Hole in the Wall," a farce (1813); " Who is Who" (1815); "A Short Reign and a Merry One," from the French (1819); "'Twould Puzzle a Conjuror " (1824); " Paul Pry," his most famous farce (1825; translated into German, Leipsic, 1863); " Turning the Tables " (1830); "A Nabob for an Hour" (1832); "Comic Sketch Book"(2 vols., 1835); "Patrician and Parvenu," a comedy (1835); " Atonement, or the Goddaughter," a play (1836); " Crotchets in the Air " (8vo, 1838); " Oddities of London Life " (2 vols., 1838); "Little Peddlington and the Peddlingtonians " (2 vols., 1839); "Phin-eas Quiddy, or Sheer Industry " (3 vols., 1842); "Comic Miscellany" (1844); and "Christmas Festivities," a collection of sketches, characters, and tales (1845). Several of his books have been republished in the United States. His farces were produced in the London theatres with Munden, Liston, Keeley, Cooper, and other celebrated comedians in the leading parts, and many of his pieces are still popular.

During his last years, mainly through the exertions of Charles Dickens, Poole received a small pension from the civil list; but he outlived all his contemporaries, and died neglected and almost forgotten.