Jakob Ayrer

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Jakob Ayrer (ca. 1543 - March 26, 1605) was a German playwright and author of Fastnachtsspiele (carnival or Shrovetide plays). Little is known of Ayrer's living circumstances. He lived as an ironmonger in Nuremberg, probably studying theology and law in Bamberg before returning in 1593 to Nuremberg, where he was Imperial notary and legal prosecutor. Ayrer was the last significant composer of Fastnachtsspiele and a very prolific author: of his 106 plays, sixty-nine survive. He took his material from Greek mythology, Roman fables and German chapbooks and stories; he also translated plays of Shakespeare. Ayrer died in 1605 in his birth city of Nuremberg. Opus Theatricum, a six-volume selection of his plays, Fastnachtsspiele and farces, appeared in 1618.