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 He was the first Czech to translate Shakespeare’s plays and to stage them. Numerous translators of the English bard have appeared at frequent intervals in Bohemia but Kolar’s poetical adaptations of Hamlet, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew and The Merchant of Venice were the accepted stage versions for many decades though his translations of the other Shakespearean dramas failed of as favorable a reception. Goethe's Faust, Goetz von Berlichingen and Egmont and Schiller’s trilogy on the life of Wallenstein and his “Robbers” also were translated by Kolar. It was later that the playwright who was likewise a successful actor and director wrote, using the plan of the Shakespearean dramas, a series of original plays—namely tragedies and historical dramas which have survived the test of time. The best are “Královna Barbora” (Queen Barbara), “Moníka” (Monica), “Pražský Žid” (The Jew of Prague), “Zižkova Smrt” (The Death of Žižka), “Mistr Jeroným” (Magister Jerome).

František A. Šubert, the real organizer of the Czech drama, has paid glowing tributes to Klicpera. He has written many thoroughly excellent dramas with historical or semi-historical backgrounds, among them “Probuzenci” (The Awakened Ones), “Petr Vok Rožmberk,” “Jan Výrava” a five act drama of the period of the closing days of feudalism, translated into English by Šárka B. Hrbkova. Problems of live social and economical interest which are unsolved to-day are considered in his “Praktikus” (The Practical