Terribly useless Methuselah cut a tragic figure (6)
I believe the answer is:
hamlet
'a tragic figure' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'terribly useless methuselah cut' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'cut' could be 'ham' (ham is a kind of cut) and 'ham' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'let' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hamlet that I've seen before include "Tragic prince of Elsinore" , "Danish role" , "Shakespeare's tragic Prince of Denmark" , "Village for Shakespearean prince" , "Shak. play; village" .)