deceived was left undecided, but the falsifications of which he was unquestionably guilty among the MSS. at Dulwich College have left little doubt respecting it. He had produced the Memoirs of Edward Alleyn for the Shakespeare Society in 1841. He followed up this volume with the Alleyn Papers (1843) and the Diary of P. Henslowe (1845). He forged the name of Shakespeare in a genuine letter at Dulwich, and the spurious entries in Alleyn’s Diary were proved to be by Collier’s hand when the sale of his library in 1884 gave access to a transcript he had made of the Diary with interlineations corresponding with the Dulwich forgeries. No statement of his can be accepted without verification, and no manuscript he has handled without careful examination, but he did much useful work. He compiled a valuable Bibliographical and Critical Account of the Rarest Books in the English Language (1865); he reprinted a great number of early English tracts of extreme rarity, and rendered good service to the numerous antiquarian societies with which he was connected, especially in the editions he produced for the Camden Society and the Percy Society. His Old Man’s Diary (1871–1872) is an interesting record, though even here the taint of fabrication is not absent. Unfortunately what he did amiss is more striking to the imagination than what he did aright, and he will be chiefly remembered by it. He died at Maidenhead, where he had long resided, on the 17th of September 1883.
For an account of the discussion raised by Collier’s emendations see C.M. Ingleby, Complete View of the Shakespeare Controversy (1861).
COLLIN, HEINRICH JOSEPH VON (1771–1811), Austrian
dramatist, was born in Vienna, on the 26th of December 1771.
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. In 1803 he was,
together with other members of his family, ennobled, and in
1809 made Hofrat. He died on the 28th of July 1811. His
tragedy Regulus (1801), written in strict classical form, was
received with enthusiasm in Vienna, where literary taste,
less advanced than that of North Germany, was still under the
ban of French classicism. But in his later dramas, Coriolan
(1804), Polyxena (1804), Balboa (1806), 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).
His younger brother Matthäus von Collin (1779–1824),
was, as editor of the Wiener Jahrbücher für Literatur, an
even more potent force in the literary life of Vienna. 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.
His Gesammelte Werke appeared in 6 vols. (1812–1814); he is the subject of an excellent monograph by F. Laban (1879). See also A. Hauffen, Das Drama der klassischen Periode, ii. 2 (1891), where a reprint of Regulus will be found. M. von Collin’s Dramatische Dichtungen were published in 4 vols. (1815–1817); his Nachgelassene Schriften, edited by J. von Hammer, in 2 vols. (1827). A study of his life and work by J. Wihan will be found in Euphorion, Ergänzungsheft, v. (1901).
COLLIN D’HARLEVILLE, JEAN FRANÇOIS (1755–1806), French dramatist, was born at Mévoisins, near Maintenon (Eure-et-Loire), on the 30th of May 1755. His first dramatic success was L’Inconstant, a comedy accepted by the Comédie
Française in 1780, but not produced there until six years later, though it was played elsewhere in 1784. This was followed by L’Optimiste, ou l’homme toujours content (1788), and
Châteaux en Espagne (1789). His best play, Le Vieux Célibataire, appeared in 1793. Among his other plays are—the one-act comedy Monsieur de Crac dans son petit castel (1791), Les Artistes (1796), Les Mœurs du jour (1800) and Malice pour malice (1803). Collin was one of the original members of the Institute of France, and died in Paris on the 24th of February 1806.
The 1822 edition of his Théâtre et poésies fugitives contains a notice by his friend the dramatist Andrieux. His Théâtre was also edited by L. Moland in 1876; and by Édouard Thierry in 1882.
COLLING, ROBERT (1749–1820), and CHARLES (1751–1836), English stock breeders, famous for their improvement of the Shorthorn breed of cattle, were the sons of Charles Colling, a farmer of Ketton near Darlington. Their lives are closely connected with the history of the Shorthorn breed. Of the two brothers, Charles is probably the better known, and it was his
visit to the farm of Robert Bakewell at Dishley that first led the brothers to realize the possibilities of scientific cattle breeding. Charles succeeded to his father’s farm at Ketton. Robert, after being first apprenticed to a grocer in Shields, took a farm
at Barmpton. An animal which he bought at Charles’s advice
for £8 and afterwards sold to his brother, became known as the
celebrated “Hubback,” a bull which formed the basis of both
the Ketton and Barmpton herds. The two brothers pursued
the same system of “in and in” breeding which they had learned
from Bakewell, and both the Ketton and the Barmpton herds
were sold by auction in the autumn of 1810. The former with
47 lots brought £7116, and the latter with 61 lots £7852. Robert
Colling died unmarried at Barmpton on the 7th of March 1820,
leaving his property to his brother. Charles Colling, who is
remembered as the owner of the famous bulls “Hubback,”
“Favourite” and “Comet,” was more of a specialist and a
business man than his brother. He died on the 16th of January
1836.
See the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 1899, for a biographical sketch of the brothers Colling, by C. J. Bates.
COLLINGWOOD, CUTHBERT COLLINGWOOD, Baron (1750–1810), British naval commander, was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on the 26th of September 1750. He was early sent to school; and when only eleven years of age he was put on board the “Shannon,” then under the command of Captain (afterwards Admiral) Brathwaite, a relative of his own, to whose care and attention he was in a great measure indebted for that nautical
knowledge which shone forth so conspicuously in his subsequent career. After serving under Captain Brathwaite for some years,
and also under Admiral Roddam, he went in 1774 to Boston with Admiral Graves, and served in the naval brigade at the battle of Bunker Hill (17th of June 1775), where he gained his lieutenancy. In 1779 he was made commander of the “Badger,” and shortly afterwards post-captain of the “Hinchinbroke,” a small frigate. In the spring of 1780 that vessel, under the command of Nelson, was employed upon an expedition to the Spanish Main, where it was proposed to pass into the Pacific by navigating boats along the river San Juan and the lakes Nicaragua and Leon. The attempt failed, and most of those engaged in it became victims to the deadly influence of the climate. Nelson was promoted to a larger vessel, and Collingwood succeeded him in the command. It is a fact worthy of record that the latter succeeded the former very frequently from the time when they first became acquainted, until the star of Nelson set at Trafalgar—giving place to that of Collingwood, less brilliant certainly, but not less steady in its lustre.
After commanding in another small frigate, Collingwood was promoted to the “Sampson” (64); and in 1783 he was appointed to the “Mediator,” destined for the West Indies, where, with Nelson, who had a command on that station, he remained till the end of 1786. With Nelson he warmly co-operated in carrying into execution the provisions of the navigation laws, which had been infringed by the United States, whose ships, notwithstanding the separation of the countries, continued to trade to the West Indies, although that privilege was by law exclusively confined to British vessels. In 1786 Collingwood returned to England, where, with the exception of a voyage to the West Indies, he remained until 1793, in which year he was appointed captain of the “Prince,” the flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Bowyer. About two years previous to this event he had married Miss Sarah Roddam—a fortunate alliance, which
