Bruce to the throne. Early in the 16th century it was
a place of considerable influence and trade. The liberality of William the
Lion had bestowed upon the corporation an extensive grant of lands; while
in addition to the well-endowed church of St John, it had two monasteries,
each possessed of a fair revenue. When Scotland was overrun by Cromwell,
Ayr was selected as the site of one of the forts which he built to command
the country. This fortification, termed the citadel, enclosed an area of
ten or twelve acres, and included within its limits the church of St John,
which was converted into a storehouse, the Protector partly indemnifying
the inhabitants by contributing L150 towards the erection of a new place of
worship, now known as the Old Church. A portion of the tower of St John's
church remains, but has been completely modernized. The site of the fort is
now nearly covered with houses, the barracks being in Fort Green.

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Bamberg, 1838), and an unpublished translation of the Psalms, Ayrer has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