Jakob Ayrer

Ayrer, Jakob (Nuremberg, 1543-1605, Nuremberg), a prolific dramatist, lived in Bamberg from 1570 to 1593, when he returned to Nuremberg and was active as a notary and as public prosecutor (Stadtprokurator). He is the author of 106 plays, written between 1592 and 1602, of which 69 survive. The chief repository of his dramatic work is the posthumous Opus theatricum (6 vols., 1618; Dramen, 5 vols., ed. A. von Keller, 1864-5, repr. 1973), in which 66 of his plays are printed. They are divided in approximately equal numbers into serious and comic (see Fastnachtspiel). Ayrer, who drew on German sources and the Italian novelle, so popular in the 16th c., is said to have been influenced by travelling troupes of English actors (see Englische Komödianten). His earliest play is Die Erbauung der Stadt Bamberg, written c.1570. Among other titles are Tragedia von Erbauung der Stadt Rom, Tragedia von Keiser Otten dem dritten, Hug Dieterich, Ortnit, and Wolfdieterich, Julius Redivivus (a free translation of Frischlin's Latin play), Comedia vom König Edwarto, Comedia Vom König in Zypern, Comedia von der schönen Phaenica und Graf Tymbri von Golison aus Arragonien, which has the same source and action as the main plot of Much Ado About Nothing, and Comedia von der schönen Sidea, a play of magic and enchantment with an action resembling the episode of Ferdinand and Miranda in The Tempest. He also wrote Singspiele and, in his earlier years, a chronicle of Bamberg. His plays are all in verse, in the form known as Knittelverse. He is the first German dramatist to make extensive use of stage directions. Ayrer's resemblances to Shakespeare are superficial, his style is without distinction, and his characters do not carry conviction, though his didactic concern has been recognized.

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