Franz Seraphim Grillparzer

Grillparzer was the first Austrian writer to achieve international standing. He was born and lived in Vienna, where music was all important and literature was strictly controlled by the church and the imperial court. His career as a playwright and as a minor government official was beset by difficulty. His plays repeatedly state his personal conviction that to be involved in love or in political power is to invite disaster. He never married his fiance, though he never released her from their betrothal, and died her lodger. An ardent patriot, he sought to glorify Austria in his historical plays but met with censorship from Prince Metternich's government. After the failure of his play Weh Dem, Der Lugt (Thou Shalt Not Lie) in 1838, he permitted no new play to be performed or published, though he continued to write for more than 30 years.