Talk:W. S. Gilbert

Need for Infobox?

I think this article would benefit from an infobox.

This would provide a quick, at-a-glance summary of W.S. Gilbert's key details, enhancing the reader's ability to grasp the essential facts and context of his life and work.

It would also help standardise his article with other literary figures, facilitating comparison and improving navigation between related articles.

Given Gilbert's significance in the literary and theatrical fields, an infobox would contribute to a more informative and user-friendly Wikipedia experience.

What do others think? Anaximenes of Miletus (talk) 19:23, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

While sports and politician bios can benefit from infoboxes, as a Signpost report notes: "Infoboxes may be particularly unsuited to liberal arts fields when they repeat information already available in the lead section of the article, are misleading or oversimplify the topic for the reader". I disagree with including an infobox in this article, in particular, because: (1) The box would emphasize less important factoids, stripped of context and lacking nuance, whereas the WP:LEAD section emphasizes and contextualizes the most important facts about Gilbert. (2) As the information that would be in the box is already discussed in the article and is also seen in a Google Knowledge Graph, the box would display a redundant 3rd (or likely 4th) mention of these facts. (3) Updates are often made to articles but not reflected in the box (or vice versa). (4) Instead of focusing on the content of the article, my experience is that editors will spend time arguing over what to include in the box. -- Ssilvers (talk) 00:14, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

I'm not convinced by IBs in liberal arts biographies, and I'm not sure one here would be an improvement. There is certainly no guideline or policy that suggests standardisation is required or beneficial, and an IB wouldn't improve navigation at all. The relevant links between articles are already present once or twice in the article. Neither is the "importance" of a subject any metric for determining one (I'm not sure how one would even measure the "importance" of a historical figure against all those notable people we have across history, but maybe that's just me). - SchroCat (talk) 10:12, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

I'd rather we not have infoboxes in bios of those who are not politicians or involved with sports. GoodDay (talk) 15:55, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

Featured picture scheduled for POTD

Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Elliott &_Fry_-_photograph_W._S._Gilbert.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for September 19, 2024. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2024-09-19. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you!  — Amakuru (talk) 09:01, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) was an English dramatist, librettist and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Arthur Sullivan. The most popular Gilbert and Sullivan collaborations include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado, one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre. These Savoy operas continue to be performed regularly today throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. Gilbert's creative output included more than 75 plays and libretti, numerous stories, poems, lyrics and various other comic and serious pieces. His plays and realistic style of stage direction inspired other dramatists, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, and his comic operas inspired the development of American musical theatre, especially influencing Broadway writers. The journalist Frank M. Boyd wrote of Gilbert: "Till one actually came to know the man, one shared the opinion ... that he was a gruff, disagreeable person; but nothing could be less true of the really great humorist. He had ... precious little use for fools ... but he was at heart as kindly and lovable a man as you could wish to meet." This cabinet card of Gilbert was produced by the photographic studio Elliott & Fry around 1882–1883.

Photograph credit: Elliott & Fry; restored by Adam Cuerden

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