Career
He received a legal education and entered the Austrian ministry of finance where he found speedy promotion. In 1805 and in 1809, when Austria was under the heel of Napoleon, Collin was entrusted with important political missions. He died on 28 July 1811 in Vienna.
But in his later dramas, Coriolan (1804), Polyxena (1804), Balboa (1806), and Bianca della Porta (1808), he made some attempt to reconcile the pseudo-classic type of tragedy with that of Shakespeare and the German romanticists.
As a lyric poet (Gedichte, collected 1812), Collin has left a collection of stirring Wehrmannslieder for the fighters in the cause of Austrian freedom, as well as some excellent ballads (Kaiser Max auf der Martinswand, Herzog Leupold vor Solothurn). He was, moreover, in sympathy with the Romantic movement, and intimate with its leaders.
His dramas on themes from Austrian national history (Belas Krieg mit dem Vater, (1808). Der Tod Friedrichs des Streitbaren, 1813) may be regarded as the immediate precursors of Grillparzer"s historical tragedies.
Heinrich"s Gesammelte Werke appeared in 6 volumes
(1812-1814). He is the subject of an excellent monograph by F. Laban (1879). See also A. Hauffen, Des Drama der klassischen Periode, ii.2 (1891), where a reprint of Regulus will be foundation
M. von Collins Dramatische Dichtungen were published in 4 volumes
(1815-1817). His Nachgelassene Schriften, edited by J. von Hammer, in 2 volumes (1827). A study of his life and work by J. Wihan will be found in Euphorion, Erganzungsheft, v (1901).