Excerpt from Five Old Plays: Forming a Supplement to the Collections of Dodsley and Others
It appears that eight persons, Members of the Society of Gray's Inn, were engaged in the production of The Misfortunes of Arthur for the entertainment of Queen Elizabeth, at Greenwich, on the 8th Feb. 1587: viz. Thomas Hughes, the author of the whole body of the tragedy; William Fulbecke who wrote two speeches substituted on the representation and appended to the old printed copy; Nicholas Trotte who furnished the Introduction; Francis Flower who penned Choruses for the first and second acts; Christopher Yelverton, Francis Bacon and John Lancaster who devised the dumb shews, then usually accompanying such performances; and a person of the name of Penroodocke, who, assisted by Flower and Lancaster, "directed the proceedings at Court."
Regarding Hughes and Trotte no information has survived. Fulbecke was born in 1566, became, was we are told, an eminent writer on the law, and in the year when this tragedy was brought-out, published a work called "Christian Ethics." The "Maister Francis Bacon," poken of at the conclusion of the piece, was of course no other than Lord Bacon; and it is a new feature in his biography, though not perhaps very prominent nor important, that he was so nearly concerned in the preparation of a play at Court: in Feb. 1587, he had just commenced his 28th year. Christopher Yelverton, as early as 1566, had written the epilogue to Gascoyne's Jocnsta, and on the present occasion was probably resorted to for his experience in such undertakings. Regarding Flower, Lancaster, and Penroodocke we have nothing to communicate.
The Misfortunes of Arthur is a dramatic composition only known to exist in the Garrick Collection.
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