Can I propose a risky statement? Here it comes!
The Commedia dell’Arte can be considered a low-level cultural entertainment (if we compare it with the “classic theatre plays”) which we can see quite similar to the modern popular “novelas” so worldwide recognized as “simple entertainment”, entertainment for the masses.
… but unlike the novelas, the Commedia dell’Arte was mostly founded on the improvisation on stage, although some rigid rules applied: the “canovaccio”.
It would quite differ from the Shakespearean theatre of later times, along with all the rest.
Of course this might lead to some strict rules, necessary to do your work and make the public happy:
Let’s shake all these situations well, and we may have a Commedia dell’Arte cocktail ready!