Austrian dramatist, poet, essayist, lawyer, and Ministry of Finance official Heinrich Joseph (Edler) von Collin II (1771/1772–1811) is best known for his pro-republican and anti-Napoleonic poetry and plays of mourning (
Trauerspiele). His works, written in a liberal spirit, advocate for the right to republican autonomy in order to motivate his German-speaking contemporaries to resist French occupation of Austria under Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821). Collin was the author of ten dramas, most notable among them the occupation-liberation plays of mourning
Regulus(1801),
Coriolan(1802), and
Bianca della Porta(1807), as well as a libretto to Shakespeare’s
Macbeth(1809), for which Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) had agreed to write the music, but which never progressed beyond a…
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Citation: High, Jeffrey L., Rebecca Stewart. "Heinrich Joseph von Collin". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 November 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13867, accessed 31 October 2024.]