AYRER

ayrer, jakob (?-1605), german dramatist, of whose life little is known. he seems to have come to nuremberg as a boy and worked his way up to the position of imperial notary. he died at nuremberg on the 26th of march 1605. besides a rhymed _chronik der stadt bamberg_ (edited by j. heller, bamberg, 1838), and an unpublished translation of the psalms, ayrer has left a large number of dramas which were printed at nuremberg under the title _opus theatricum_ in 1618. this collection contains thirty tragedies and comedies and thirty-six _fastnachtsspiele_ (shrovetide plays) and _singspiele_. as a dramatist, ayrer is virtually the successor of hans sachs (_q.v._), but he came under the influence of the so-called _englische komoedianten_, that is, troupes of english actors, who, at the close of the 16th century and during the 17th, repeatedly visited the continent, bringing with them the repertory of the elizabethan theatre. from those actors ayrer learned how to enliven his dramas with sensational incidents and spectacular effects, and from them he borrowed the character of the clown. his plays, however, are in spite of his foreign models, hardly more dramatic, in the true sense of the word, than those of hans sachs, and they are inferior to the latter in poetic qualities. the plots of two of his comedies, _von der schoenen phoenicia_ and _von der schoenen sidea_, were evidently drawn from the same sources as those of shakespeare's _much ado about nothing_ and _tempest_. _ayrers dramen_, edited by a. von keller, have been published by the stuttgart lit. verein (1864-1865). see also l. tieck, _deutsches theater_ (1817); a. cohn, _shakespeare in germany_ (1885), which contains a translation of the two plays mentioned above; j. tittmann, _schauspiele des sechzehnten jahrhunderts_ (1888).