Talk:The Fair Maid of the Exchange

Requested move 12 August 2016

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Moved. This clearly satisfies WP:COMMONNAME, as Cuchullain points out, and also backed up by ngram. However, it should be noted that the original rationale is not necessarily valid. We go by common usage in reliable sources, there is no policy saying we prefer either "olde worlde" or "modern" language.  — Amakuru (talk) 19:43, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

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The Fayre Mayde of the Exchange → The Fair Maid of the Exchange – re: Wikipedia naming conventions - play title should be in modern spelling  • DP •  ^{huh?} 15:24, 12 August 2016 (UTC) --Relisting. BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 08:27, 22 August 2016 (UTC)

• Comment: This page was moved to the current title in November, 2013 by User:Eric Corbett, away from the proposed target. I'll leave him a note that this is being discussed. EdJohnston (talk) 02:59, 19 August 2016 (UTC)

Should be uncontroversial, since it's standard Wikipedia naming policy for all Renaissance plays, many of which use early modern spellings and are always modernised on Wikipedia (and overwhelming majority of other places).  • DP •  ^{huh?} 03:45, 19 August 2016 (UTC)

• Oppose. There is no such provision in Wikipedia naming conventions. And if there were, would it not apply also to plays such as The Faerie Queene? Andrewa (talk)

Erm... yes there is. An Amazon search for this play and a review, for example, of all of the articles on Shakespeare's plays demonstrates it. Spencer's poem retains the Elizabethan spelling in modern editions. This one most certainly doesn't. I can't think of any other Renaissance plays that do. Troilus and Cressida, for example, isn't at the namespace Troylus and Cresseida -- that'd be silly (Chaucer's poem, on the other hand, retains an old-style spelling in modern editions, a convention followed here). As silly as spelling Fair Maid "Fayre Mayde."  • DP •  ^{huh?} 13:19, 20 August 2016 (UTC)

Um... interesting as that may be, it doesn't answer my objection. You stated it's standard Wikipedia naming policy for all Renaissance plays, many of which use early modern spellings and are always modernised on Wikipedia (my emphasis). This would be very relevant indeed if true, but I think you might just mean it's been the practice, rather than an explicit policy or guideline. (You seem to be similarly misusing the term namespace.)

There may well be a case. Should we relist? Andrewa (talk) 21:18, 20 August 2016 (UTC)

Without trawling for the exact reference, naming policy states that the standard usage applies, no? And yes, "article-name" whatever, for the non-modern troilus. But no, not merely practice, as a matter of policy. Which is of course why Spencer's poem is an exceptional instance.  • DP •  ^{huh?} 16:29, 21 August 2016 (UTC)

• Support. The actual Wikipedia naming convention is WP:COMMONNAME, and in this case it happens that the modernized title The Fair Maid of the Exchange is substantially more common: for instance 6,480 Google Books hits vs. 731 for the present title. See especially references in particularly relevant literature such as:[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] To answer the above concern, this case is different from The Faerie Queene and Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, where the old spellings remain the common names in the sources.--Cúchullain ^t/c 14:59, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.