James Knowles (1784 - 1862) was an Irish actor and dramatist. As a teen he published The Welsh Harper, which was a ballad set to music. Knowles was one of the leading playwrights of his time. His most popular plays, which are noted for their professional, workmanlike construction, include the tragedies Virginius (1820) and William Tell (1825) and the comedies The Hunchback (1832) and The Beggar of Bethnal Green (1834). In The Hunchback Julia is a country girl who comes to London, where her eyes are seemingly blinded by the allures of high society. She almost rejects her faithful, good-natured lover in order to marry a much richer man, but luckily she sees the error of her ways, repents, and as all true romance stories must end is happily reunited with the right man.