One of Dubrovnik’s most cherished cultural icons is Marin Držić, the sixteenth-century playwright who was (as far as we know) the first person to write major drama in the Croatian language. Despite writing in an archaic dialect that is difficult for modern audiences to follow, Držić is the one Croatian dramatist that local schoolchildren are forced to read at least once in their lives.   
Born into a family of merchants, Držić studied theology in Siena and it was here that he came into contact with early Renaissance theatre. After failing to make much of a mark in any post-university career, however, Držić spent his mid-thirties working as secretary to Austrian diplomat Count Christoph von Rogendorf – exposure to the court life of Vienna and Constantinople providing Držić with plenty of useful plot ideas. Držić’s most productive period occurred during his forties, when he wrote a series of comedies and farces, and at least one tragedy (“Hecuba”), the text of which is now lost. These plays were performed during the Dubrovnik carnival season or at the high-society social functions of the local nobility. Failing to achieve much in the way of either fame or fortune however, Držić returned to Italy in 1562. Previous experience of diplomatic intrigues under von Rogendorf probably left Držić with inflated ideas of his own conspiratorial abilities, and he hatched a plot to overthrow the Dubrovnik Republic with help from Italian princes. Ruler of Florence Cosimo de Medici failed to answer Držić’s letters on the subject, and the playwright ended a largely frustrated and unfulfilled life in Venice in 1567.
The cultural heritage of Dubrovnik played a crucial role in the Croatian national revival of the nineteenth century, when Renaissance literary gems were dusted off and hailed as landmarks of artistic achievement. It was seventeenth-century poet Ivan Gundulić who initially profited most from this process of literary archeology, and it wasn’t until the 1930s that people seriously considered putting Drzic’s works back on the Croatian stage. Since then Držić has become an important symbol of Dubrovnik’s contribution to European culture, and his works usually enjoy a central role in the annual Dubrovnik Festival.
However Dubrovnik has always struggled to make Držić relevant to foreign visitors and there are no signs of anyone hitting on the magical formula any time soon. The Marin Držić House-Museum (see Sightseeing) is a pretty amusing place to visit but for all the wrong reasons: despite the relative lack of any meaningful exhibits, visitors are given a headphone commentary on which hammy actors plod their way through a series of Držić-penned text, rendered here in awful English translation. All of which is a great shame when one considers that Držić is as important to his own language as Shakespeare and Molière are to theirs.