HUGHES, THOMAS, English dramatist, a native of Che shire, entered Queens' college, Cambridge, in 1571, and became a member of Gray's Inn. He wrote The Misfortunes of Arthur, Uther Pendragon's son reduced into tragical notes by Thomas Hughes, performed at Greenwich in the queen's presence on Feb. 28, 1588. Nicholas Trotte provided the introduction, Francis Flower the choruses of Acts I. and II., William Fulbeck two speeches, while three other gentlemen of Gray's Inn, one of whom was Francis Bacon, undertook the care of the dumb show. The argument of the play, based on a story of incest and crime, was borrowed, in accordance with Senecan tradition, from mythical history, in this case Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Britonum. Dr. W. J. Cunliffe has proved that Hughes's memory was satu rated with Seneca, and that the play may be resolved into a patchwork of translations, with occasional original lines.
The Misfortunes of Arthur was reprinted in J. P. Collier's supple ment to Dodsley's Old Plays; and by Harvey Carson Grumline (Berlin, 1900) who points out that Hughes's source was Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Britonum, not the Morte D'Arthur.