August von Kotzebue's Count Benyowsky,1794

Abstract

As is well-known, Kotzebue Sound in Alaska is named after Otto von Kotzebue, who surveyed the area during his second circumnavigation of the globein 1815–1818. However, Otto was not the only member of his family worthy of attention. His father, August von Kotzebue, was the author of Count Benyowsky, one of the earliest plays the action of which is set in the north. The work was written in German in 1794 and was widely translated. In English, in B. Thompson's translation of 1800, it received the subtitle ‘The conspiracy of Kamtschatka.’