Talk:Commedia

Primary topic
Its probably best to discuss here rather than in edit summaries. I'm tempted to say that Commedia should redirect to Commedia (disambiguation), on the grounds that the Dante and the acting style are both likely targets of someone entering Commedia in the search box. If you are unfamiliar with these discussions, you might want to check WP:MOSDAB - particularly WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. (John User:Jwy talk) 22:57, 3 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Personally, I would have expected a redirect to Commedia dell'arte, but if not, a redirect to the dab page (people searching for the Dante work would add "Divina", I would expect). -- Radagast 3 (talk) 23:28, 3 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Pending resolution of this discussion, I've restored the redirect to what it was originally. -- Radagast 3 (talk) 00:47, 4 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure it matters much, though: Divine Comedy gets 6,270 hits per day, Commedia dell'arte gets 1,280, but this Commedia redirect only gets 13. I guess people in both groups know what they're looking for. Given the small volume, I think a redirect to the dab page is best. -- Radagast 3 (talk) 03:04, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Well, for me, the relevant point is that "the Commedia" is perhaps the most common and preferred form of reference to Dante's Comedy in English-language scholarship (remember of course that he never applied the word "divine," so that scholars avoid it). I was intemperate in my edit summary, because at the time I did not realize clearly that "commedia troupe," "commedia performance," etc. is standard in reference to commedia dell'arte. I regret this. Now that I am better informed, I still don't think it is good for this simply to point to commedia dell'arte, however. In short, when the English-language scholars on a topic as notable as Dante's Divine Comedy prefer the term "the Commedia" in such large numbers, I think it's absurd if we simply redirect to commedia dell'arte. Thus I suggest Commedia should be the disambig page, as a compromise. (As for the film, I just clicked on its article for the first time and found that it's not even called Commedia!) Wareh (talk) 15:59, 4 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I would agree that the phrase "the Commedia", with a definite article, is likely to refer to Dante. However, it looks like we're agreed on a dab-page redirect. Thanks for raising this issue. -- Radagast 3 (talk) 23:59, 4 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for being so understanding of the issues involved. In my experience, such quick understanding is rare!  best - (John User:Jwy talk) 00:59, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

The point of a redirect is to point it to the most-common form. Perhaps Dante might be the most common for "the Commedia, but the most common for "Commedia" is always going to be the theatrical form, as this abbreviation is extremely common. The prefences of a small number of Dante scholars is by far outweighed by the majority of browsers who are most-likely to be looking for commedia dell'arte. DionysosProteus (talk) 10:40, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
 * It's clear that there are arguments both ways, so lets redirect to the dab page, which is what we had a consensus to do. -- Radagast 3 (talk) 11:57, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Moreover, just for the record, "the most common for 'Commedia' is always going to be the theatrical form" is a disputable statement. It is not self-evident to someone who reads about "Dante's Commedia" that this should be translated into "the Commedia" for the purpose of finding the article.  In short, I believe the most common referent of "Commedia" in English without the article in front of it is Dante's poem.  Wareh (talk) 14:57, 5 May 2010 (UTC)