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MACHIAVELLI, NICCOLO (1469-1527)
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See also:MACHIAVELLI, NICCOLO (1469-1527) , See also:Italian statesman and writer, was See also:born at See also:Florence on the 3rd of May 1469. His ancestry claimed See also:blood relationship with the lords of Montespertoli, a See also:fief situated between Val di Pesa and Val d'Elsa, at no See also:great distance from the See also:city. Niccolo's See also:father, Bernardo (b. 1428), followed the profession of a jurist. He held landed See also:property See also:worth something like £250 a See also:year of our See also:money. His son, though not wealthy, was never wholly dependent upon See also:official income.
Of Niccolo's See also:early years and See also:education little is known. His See also:works show wide See also:reading in the Latin and Italian See also:classics, but it is almost certain that he had not mastered the See also:Greek See also:language. To the defects of Machiavelli's education we may, in See also:part at least, ascribe the See also:peculiar vigour of his See also:style and his speculative originality. He is See also:free from the scholastic trifling and learned frivolity which tainted the rhetorical culture of his See also:century. He made the See also:world of men and things his study, learned to write his See also:mother-See also:tongue with idiomatic conciseness, and nourished his See also:imagination on the masterpieces of the See also:Romans.
The year of See also: He was appointed clerk in the second See also:chancery of the See also:commune under his old See also:master, the grammarian, See also:Marcello Virgilio See also:Adriani. Early in 1498 Adriani became See also:chancellor of the See also:republic, and Machiavelli received his vacated See also:office with the See also:rank of second chancellor and secretary. This See also:post he retained till the year 1512. The masters he had to serve were the dieci di libertd e See also:pace, who, though subordinate to the signoria, exercised a See also:separate See also:control over the departments of See also:war and the interior. They sent their own ambassadors to See also:foreign See also:powers, transacted business with the cities of the Florentine domain, and controlled the military See also:establishment of the See also:commonwealth. The next four-teen years of Machiavelli's life were fully occupied in the voluminous See also:correspondence of his See also:bureau, in See also:diplomatic See also:missions of varying importance, and in the organization of a Florentine See also:militia. It would be tedious to follow him through all his embassies to See also:petty courts of See also:Italy, the first of which took See also:place in 1499, when he was sent to negotiate the continuance of a See also:loan to See also:Catherine See also:Sforza, countess of Forli and See also:Imola. In 1500 Machiavelli travelled into See also:France, to See also:deal with See also: In the same year See also:Piero See also:Soderini was chosen gonfalonier for life, in accordance with certain changes in the constitution of the state, which were intended to bring Florence closer to the Venetian type of See also:government. Machiavelli became intimately connected with Soderini, assisted him in carrying out his policy, suggested important See also:measures of military reform which Soderini adopted, and finally was involved in ruin by his fall. The year r502 was marked by yet another decisive incident in Machiavelli's life. In See also:October he was sent, much against his will, as See also:envoy to the See also:camp of Cesare See also:Borgia, See also:duke of See also:Valentinois. The duke was then in Romagna, and it was Machiavelli's See also:duty to wait upon and See also:watch him. He was able now to observe those intricate intrigues which culminated in Cesare's See also:murder of his disaffected captains. From what remains of Machiavelli's official letters, and from his See also:tract upon the Modo the tenne it duca Valentino per ammazzar Vitellozzo See also:Vitelli, we are able to appreciate the actual relations which existed between the two men, and the growth in Machiavelli's mind of a political ideal based upon his study of the duke's See also:character. Machiavelli conceived the strongest admiration for Cesare's See also:combination of audacity with diplomatic prudence, for his adroit use of See also:cruelty and See also:fraud, for his self-reliance, avoidance of See also:half-measures, employment of native troops, and See also:firm See also:administration in conquered provinces. More than once, in letters to his friend Vettori, no less than in the pages of the Principe, Machiavelli afterwards expressed his belief that Cesare Borgia's behaviour in the See also:conquest of provinces, the cementing of a new state out of scattered elements, and the dealing with false See also:friends or doubtful See also:allies, was worthy of all See also:commendation and of scrupulous See also:imitation. As he watched Cesare Borgia at this, the rn 'st brilliant See also:period of his adventurous career, the See also:man became idealized in his reflective but imaginative mind. See also:Round him, as a See also:hero, he allowed his own conceptions of the perfect See also:prince to cluster. That Machiavelli separated the actual Cesare Borgia, whom he afterwards saw, ruined and contemptible, at See also:Rome, from this radiant creature of his political See also:fancy, is probable. That the Cesare of See also:history does not exactly match the Duca Valentino of Machiavelli's writings- is certain. Still the fact remains that henceforth Machiavelli cherished the ideal See also:image of the statesman which he had modelled upon Cesare, and called this by the name of Valentino. On his return to Florence early in See also:January s 5O3, Machiavelli began to occupy himself with a project which his. See also:recent attendance upon Cesare Borgia had strengthened in his mind.. The duties of his office obliged him to study the conditions of military service as they then existed in Italy. He was See also:familiar with the disadvantages under which republics laboured when they engaged professional captains of See also:adventure and levied See also:mercenary troops. The See also:bad faith of the See also:condottiere See also:Paolo Vitelli (beheaded at Florence in 1499) had deeply impressed him. In the war with Pisa he had observed the insubordination and untrustworthiness of soldiers gathered from the dregs of different districts, serving under egotistical and irresponsible commanders. His reading in See also:Livy taught him to admire the See also:Roman See also:system of employing armies raised from the See also:body of the citizens; and Cesare Borgia's method of gradually substituting the troops of his own duchy for aliens and mercenaries showed him that this See also:plan might be adopted with success by the Italians. He was now determined, if possible, to furnish Florence with a See also:national militia. The gonfalonier Soderini entered into his views. But obstacles of no small magnitude arose. The question of money was immediately pressing. Early in 1503 Machiavelli See also:drew up for Soderini a speech, Discorso See also:sulla provisione del danaro, in which the duty and See also:necessity of liberal See also:expenditure for the See also:protection of the state were expounded upon principles of See also:sound political See also:philosophy. Between this date and the last See also:month of 15o6 Machiavelli laboured at his favourite See also:scheme, working out memorials on the subject for his office, and suggesting the outlines of,a new military organization. On the 6th of See also:December 15o6 his plan was approved by the signoria, and a See also:special See also:ministry, called the nove di ordinanza e milizia, was appointed. Machiavelli immediately became their secretary. The See also:country districts of the Florentine dominion were now divided into departments, and levies of See also:foot soldiers were made in See also:order to secure a See also:standing militia. A See also:commander-in-See also:chief had to be chosen for the new troops. Italian See also:jealousy shrank from conferring this important officeon a Florentine, lest one member of the state should acquire a See also:power dangerous to the whole. The choice of Soderini and Machiavelli See also:fell, at this juncture, upon an extremely ineligible See also:person, none other than See also:Don Micheletto, Cesare Borgia's cut-See also:throat and See also:assassin. It is necessary to insist upon this point, since it serves to illustrate a See also:radical infirmity in Machiavelli's See also:genius. While forming and promoting his scheme, he was actuated by principles of political See also:wisdom and- by the purest patriotism. But he failed to perceive that such a See also:ruffian as Micheletto could not inspire the troops of Florence with that devotion to their country and that healthy moral See also:tone which should distinguish a patriot See also:army. Here, as elsewhere, he revealed his insensibility to the ethical See also:element in human nature. Meanwhile Italy had been the See also:scene of memorable events, in most of which Machiavelli took some part. See also: About the same time he composed a See also:comedy on the See also:model of See also:Aristophanes, which is unfortunately lost. It seems to have been called Le Maschere. Giuliano de' See also:Ricci tells us it was marked by stringent See also:satire upon great ecclesiastics and statesmen, no less than by a tendency to "ascribe all human things to natural causes or to See also:fortune.?' That phrase accurately describes, the prevalent See also:bias of its author's mind. The greater part of 'son and 1507 was; spent in organizing the new militia, corresponding on the subject, and scouring the couns try on enlistment service. But at the end of the latter year See also:European affairs of no small moment diverted 7b,lachia.yellf from these humbler duties. See also:Maximilian was planning a See also:journey into Italy in order to be crowned See also:emperor at Rome, and was levying subsidies from the imperial burghs for his expenses. The Florentines thought his demands excessive. Though• they already had See also:Francesco Vettori at his See also:court, Soderini judged it advisable to send Machiavelli thither in December. He See also:tray veiled by See also:Geneva, all through See also:Switzerland; to See also:Botzen, where he found the emperor. This journey was an important moment in his life. It enabled him to study the Swiss and the, Germans in their homes; and the See also:report which he wrote on his return is among his most effective political studies. What is most remark-able in it is his concentrated effort to realize the exact political See also:weight of the See also:German nation, and to Penetrate the causes of its strength and weakness. He attempts to grasp the national character as a whole, and thence to deduce See also:practical conclusions.. The same qualities are noticeable in his Ritratti delle See also:nose di See also:Francia, which he drew up after an See also:embassy to Louis XII. at See also:Blois in 151o. These notes upon the See also:French See also:race are more, scattered than the report, on German affairs. But they reveal no less acumen combined with imaginative penetration into the very essence of national existence. Michiavelli returned from See also:Germany in See also:June 1 508. The, See also:rest of that year and a large part of 1509 were spent in the affairs of the militia and the war of Pisa. Chiefly through his exertions, the war was terminated by the surrender of Pisa in June 1509. Meanwhile the See also:league of Cambray had disturbed the See also:peace of Italy, and Florence found herself in a perilous position between See also:Spain and France. Soderini's government See also:grew weaker. The Medicean party lifted up its See also:head. To the Ieague of Cambray succeeded the See also:Holy League. The See also:battle of See also:Ravenna was fought, and the French retired from Italy. The Florentines had been spectators rather than actors in these great events. But they were now destined to feel the full effects of them. The See also:cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, who was See also:present at the battle of Ravenna, brought a See also:Spanish army into See also:Tuscany. See also:Prato was sacked in the See also:August of 151 z. Florence, in extreme terror, deposed the gonfalonier, and opened her See also:gates to the princes of the See also:house of Medici. The government on which Machiavelli depended had fallen, never to rise again. The national militia in which he placed unbounded confidence had proved inefficient to protect Florence in the See also:hour of need. He was surrounded by political and See also:personal enemies, who regarded him with jealousy as the ex-gonfalonier's right-See also:hand man. Yet at first it appears that he still hoped to retain his office. He showed no repugnance to a See also:change of masters, and began to make overtures to the Medici. The rove See also:delta militia were, however, dissolved; and on the 7th of See also:November 1512 Machiavelli was deprived of his appointments. He was exiled from Florence and confined to the dominion for one year, and on the 17th of November was futher prohibited from setting foot in the Palazzo Pubblico. Ruin stared him in the See also:face; and, to make matters worse, he was implicated in the See also:conspiracy of See also:Pier Paolo Boscoli in See also:February 1513. Machiavelli had taken no See also:share in that feeble See also:attempt against the Medici, but his name was found upon a memorandum dropped by Boscoli. This was enough to ensure his imprisonment.' He was racked, and only released upon Giovanni de' Medici's See also:election to the papacy in March 1513. When he See also:left his See also:dungeon he retired to a See also:farm near See also:San Casciano; and faced the fact that his political career was at an end. Machiavelli now entered upon a period of life to which we; owe the great works that have rendered his name immortal. But it was one of prolonged disappointment and annoyance. He had not accustomed himself to economical living; and, when the emoluments of his office were withdrawn, he had barely enough to support his See also:family. The previous years of his manhood had been spent in continual activity. Much as he enjoyed the study of the Latin and Italian classics, literature was not his business; nor had he looked on writing as more than an occasional amusement. He was now driven in upon his books for the employment of a restless temperament; and to this irksomeness of enforced leisure may be ascribed the See also:production of the Principe, the Discorsi, the Arte della guerra, the comedies, and the Historie fiorentine. The uneasiness of Machiavelli's mind, in the first years of this retirement is brought before us by his private correspondence. The letters to Vettori paint a man of vigorous See also:intellect and feverish activity, dividing his time between studies and vulgar dissipations, seeking at one time See also:distraction. in See also:low intrigues and wanton See also:company, at another turning to the great minds of antiquity for solace. It is not easy to understand the spirit in which the author of the Principe sat down to See also:exchange obscenities with the author of the Sommario della See also:scoria d'Italia. At the same time this coarseness of See also:taste did not See also:blunt his intellectual sagacity. His letters on public affairs in Italy and Europe, especially those which he meant Vettori to communicate to the Medici at Rome, are marked by extraordinary fineness of See also:perception, combined, as usual in his See also:case, with philosophical breadth. In retirement at his See also:villa near Percussina, a See also:hamlet of San Casciano, Machiavelli completed the Principe 'before the end of 1513. This famous See also:book is an See also:analysis of the methods whereby an ambitious man may rise to See also:sovereign power. It appears to have grown out of another scarcely less celebrated work, upon which Machiavelli had been engaged before he took the Principe in hand, and which he did not finish until some time afterwards. This second See also:treatise is the Discorsi See also:copra la prima deca di. Tito Livio. See also:Cast in the See also:form of comments on the history of Livy, the Discorsi are really an inquiry into the See also:genesis and See also:maintenance of states. The Principe is an offshoot from the See also:main theme of the Discorsi, setting forth Machiavelli's views at large and in detail upon the nature of principalities, the method of cementing them, and the qualities of a successful autocrat. Being more limited in subject and more See also:independent as a work of literary See also:art, this See also:essay detachesitself from the main body of the Discorsi, and has attracted far more See also:attention. We feel that the Principe is inspired with greater fervency, as though its author had more than a speculative aim in view, and brought it forth to serve a special crisis. The moment of its See also:composition was indeed decisive. Machiavelli judged the case of Italy so desperate that salvation could only be expected from the intervention of a powerful See also:despot. The unification of Italy in a state protected by a national army was the cherished See also:dream of his life; and the peroration of the Principe shows. that he meant this treatise to have a See also:direct bearing on the problem. We must be careful, however, not to fall into the See also:error of supposing that he wrote it with the See also:sole See also:object of See also:meeting an occasional emergency. Together with the Discorsi, the Principe contains the speculative fruits of his experience and observation combined with his deductions from Roman history. The two works form one coherent body of See also:opinion, not systematically expressed, it is true, but based on the same principles, involving the same conclusions, and directed to the same philosophical end. That end is the analysis of the conception of the state, studied under two main types, republican and monarchical. Up to the date' of Machiavelli, See also:modern political philosophy had always presupposed an ideal. See also:Medieval See also:speculation took the Church and the See also:Empire for granted, as divinely appointed institutions, under which the nations of the See also:earth must flourish for the space of man's See also:probation on this See also:planet. Thinkers differed only as Guelfs and Ghibellines, as leaning on the one See also:side to papal, on the other to imperial supremacy. In the revival ' of learning, scholarship supplanted See also:scholasticism, and the old ways of medieval thinking were forgotten. But no substantial philosophy of any See also:kind emerged from See also:humanism; the political lucubrations of the scholars were, like their ethical See also:treatises, for the most part rhetorical. Still the humanists effected a delivery of the intellect from what' had become the bondage of obsolete ideas, and created a new See also:medium for the speculative , See also:faculty. Simultaneously with the revival, Italy had passed into that See also:stage of her existence ' which has been called the See also:age of despots. The yoke of the Empire had been shaken off. The Church had taken rank among Italian tyrannies. The See also:peninsula was, roughly speaking, divided into principalities and sovereign cities, each of which claimed autocratic See also:jurisdiction. These separate despotisms owned no See also:common social tie, were founded on no common See also:jus or right, but were connected in a network of conflicting interests and changeful diplomatic combinations. A keen and See also:positive political intelligence emerged in the Italian race. The reports of Venetian and Florentine ambassadors at this See also:epoch contain the first germs of an attempt to study politics from the point of view of See also:science. At this moment Machiavelli intervenes. He was conscious of the change which had come over Italy and Europe. He was aware that the old strongholds of medieval thought must be abandoned, and that the decaying ruins of medieval institutions furnished no basis for the erection of solid political edifices. He See also:felt the corruption of his country, and sought to bring, the world back to a lively sense of the necessity for See also:reformation. His originality consists in having extended the positive intelligence of his century from the See also:sphere of contemporary politics and special interests to man at large regarded as a political being. He founded the science of politics for the modern world, by concentrating thought upon its fundamental principles. He began to study men, not according to some preconception, but as he found them—men, not in the See also:isolation of one century, but as a whole in history. He drew his conclusions fisorn the nature of mankind itself, " ascribing all things to natural causes or to fortune." In this way he restored the right method of study, a method which had been neglected since the days of See also:Aristotle. He formed a conception of the modern state, which marked the See also:close of the See also:middle ages, and anticipated the next phase of European development. His prince, abating those points which are purely Italian or strongly tinctured with the author's personal. peculiarities, prefigured the monarchs of the 16th and 17th centuries, the monarchs whose See also:motto was L'etat c' est moil His See also:doctrine of a national militia foreshadowed the system which has given strength in arms to France and Germany, His insight into the causes of Italian decadence was See also:complete; and the remedies which he suggested, in the perorations of the Principe and the Arte delta guerra, have since been applied in the unification of Italy. Lastly, when we once have freed ourselves from the antipathy engendered by his severance of See also:ethics from the See also: He held that the See also:people, as distinguished from the nobles and the See also:clergy, were the See also:pith and fibre of nations; yet this same people had to become See also:wax in the hands of the politician—their See also:commerce and their comforts, the arts which give a dignity to life and the pleasures which make life liveable, neglected—their very See also:liberty subordinated to the one tyrannical conception. To this point the segregation of politics from every other See also:factor which goes to constitute humanity had brought him; and this it is which makes us feel his world a See also:wilderness, devoid of See also:atmosphere and vegetation. Yet some such isolation of the subject See also:matter of this science was demanded at the moment of its See also:birth, just as political See also:economy, when first started, had to make a rigid severance of See also:wealth from other See also:units. It is only by a See also:gradual See also:process that social science in its whole complexity can be evolved. We have hardly yet discovered that political economy has unavoidable points of contact with ethics. From the foregoing See also:criticism it will be perceived that all the questions whether Machiavelli meant to corrupt or to instruct the world, to fortify the hands of tyrants or to See also:lead them to their ruin, are now obsolete. He was a man of science—one who by the vigorous study of his subject matter sought from that subject-matter itself to deduce See also:laws. The difficulty which remains in judging him is a difficulty of statement, valuation, allowance. How much shall we allow for his position in See also:Renaissance Italy, for the corruption in the midst of which he lived, for his own personal temperament? How shall we state his point of departure from the middle ages, his sympathy with prevalent classical enthusiasms, his See also:divination of a new period? How shall we estimate the permanent worth of his method, the residuum of value in his See also:maxims? After See also:finishing the Principe, Machiavelli thought of dedicating it to one of the Medicean princes, with the avowed See also:hope that he might thereby regain their favottr and find public employment. He wrote to Vettori on the subject, and Giuliano de' Medici, duke of See also:Nemours, seemed to him the proper person. The choice was reasonable. No sooner had See also:Leo been made pope than he formed schemes for the aggrandizement of his family. Giuliano was offered and refused the duchy of See also:Urbino. Later on, Leo designed for him a duchy in Emilia, to be cemented out of See also:Parma, See also:Piacenza, Reggio and See also:Modena. Supported by the power of the papacy, with the See also:goodwill of Florence to back him, Giuliano would have found himself in a position somewhat better than that of Cesare Borgia; and Borgia's creation of the duchy of Romagna might have served as his model. Machiavelli therefore was justified in feeling that here was an opportunity for putting his cherished schemes in practice, and that a prince with such alliances might even advance to the See also:grand end of the unification of Italy. Giuliano, however, died in 1506. Then Machiavelli turned his thoughts towards Lorenzo, duke of Urbino. The choice of this man as a possible Italian liberator reminds us of the choice of Don Micheletto as See also:general of the Florentine militia. To Lorenzo the Principe was dedicated, but without result. The Medici, as yet at all events, could not employ Machiavelli, and had not in themselves the stuff to found Italian kingdoms. Machiavelli, meanwhile, was reading his Discorsi to a select See also:audience in the Rucellai gardens, fanning that republican See also:enthusiasm which never See also:lay See also:long dormant among the Florentines. Towards the year 1519 both Leo X. and his See also:cousin, the cardinal Giulio de' Medici, were much perplexed about the management of the republic. It seemed necessary, if possible, in the gradual extinction of their family to give the city at least a semblance of self-government. They applied to several celebrated politicians, among others to Machiavelli, for See also:advice in the emergency. The result was a treatise in which he deduced practical conclusions from the past history and present See also:temper of the city, blending these with his favourite principles of government in general. He earnestly admonished Leo, for his own See also:sake and for Florence, to found a permanent and free state system for the republic, reminding him in terms of See also:noble eloquence how splendid is the See also:glory of the man who shall confer such benefits upon a people. The year 1520 saw the composition of the Arte della guerra and the Vita di Castruccio. The first of these is a methodical treatise, setting forth Machiavelli's views on military matters, digesting his theories respecting the superiority of national troops, the inefficiency of fortresses, the necessity of relying upon See also:infantry in war, and thecomparative insignificance of See also:artillery. It is strongly coloured with his enthusiasm for See also:ancient Rome; and specially upon the topic of artillery it displays a want of insight into the actualities of modern warfare. We may regard it as a supplement or appendix to the Principe and the Discorsi, since Machiavelli held it for a fundamental See also:axiom that states are powerless unless completely armed in permanence. The peroration contains a noble See also:appeal to the Italian liberator of his dreams, and a parallel from Macedonian history, which, read by the See also:light of this century, sounds like a prophecy of See also:Piedmont. The Vita di Castruccio was composed at See also:Lucca, whither Machiavelli had been sent on a See also:mission. This so-called See also:biography of the medieval adventurer who raised himself by personal ability and military skill to the tyranny of several Tuscan cities must be regarded in the light of an See also:historical See also:romance. Dealing freely with the outline of Castruccio's career, as he had previously dealt with Cesare Borgia, he sketched his own ideal of the successful prince. Cesare Borgia had entered into the Principe as a representative figure rather than an actual personage; so now conversely the theories of the Principe assumed the outward form and semblance of Castruccio. In each case history is blent with speculation in nearly the same proportions. But Castruccio, being farther from the writer's own experience, bears weaker traits of See also:personality. In the same year, 1520, Machiavelli, at the instance of the cardinal Giulio de' Medici, received See also:commission from the See also:officers of the Studio pubblico to write a history of Florence. They agreed to pay him an See also:annual allowance of Too florins while engaged upon the work. The next six years were partly employed in its composition, and he left a portion of it finished, with a See also:dedication to See also:Clement VII., when he died in 1527. In the Historie fiorentine Machiavelli quitted the field of political speculation for that of history. But, having already written the Discorsi and the Principe, he carried with him to this new task of historiography the See also:habit of mind proper to political philosophy. In his hands the history of Florence became a See also:text on which at fitting seasons to deliver lessons in the science he initiated. This gives the work its special character.. It is not so much a See also:chronicle of Florentine affairs, from the commencement of modern history to the See also:death of Lorenzo de' Medici in 1492, as a critique of that chronicle from the point of view,adopted by Machiavelli in his former writings. Having condensed his doctrines in the Principe and the Discorsi, he applies their abstract principles to the example of the Florentine republic. But the History of Florence is not a See also:mere political pamphlet. It is the first example in Italian literature of a national biography, the first attempt in any,literature to trace the vicissitudes of a people's life in their logical sequence, deducing each successive phase from passions or necessities inherent in pre-ceding circumstances, reasoning upon them from general principles, and inferring corollaries for the conduct of the future. In point of form the Florentine History is modelled upon Livy. It contains speeches in the See also:antique manner, which may be taken partly as embodying the author's commentary upon situations of importance, partly as expressing what he thought dramatically appropriate to prominent personages. The style of the whole book is See also:nervous, vivid, free from artifice and See also:rhetoric, obeying the writer's thought with absolute plasticity. Machiavelli had formed for himself a See also:prose style, equalled by no one but by See also:Guicciardini in his See also:minor works, which was far removed from the emptiness of the latinizing humanists and the trivialities of the Italian purists. Words in his hands have the substance, the self-See also:evidence of things. It is an See also:athlete's style, all See also:bone and See also:sinew, nude, without superfluous flesh or See also:ornament. It would seem that from the date of Machiavelli's discourse to Leo on the government of Florence the Medici had taken him into See also:consideration. Writing to Vettori in 1513, he had expressed his eager wish to " See also:roll stones " in their service; and this See also:desire was now gratified. In 1521 he was sent to See also:Carpi to transact a petty matter with the See also:chapter of the See also:Franciscans, the chief known result of the embassy being a See also:burlesque correspondence with Francesco Guicciardini. Four years later, in 1525, he received a rather more important mission to See also:Venice. But Machiavelli's public career was virtually closed; and the See also:interest of his biography still centres in his literary work. We have seen that already, in 1504, he had been engaged upon a comedy in the manner of Aristophanes, which is now unfortunately lost. A See also:translation of the See also:Andria and three See also:original comedies from his See also:pen are extant, the precise See also:dates of which are uncertain, though the greatest of them was first printed at Rome in 1524. This is the Mandragola, which may be justly called the ripest and most powerful See also:play in the Italian language. The See also:plot is both improbable and unpleasing. But literary criticism is merged in admiration of the wit, the See also:humour, the vivacity, the satire of a piece which brings before us the old life of Florence in a See also:succession of brilliant scenes. If Machiavelli had any moral object when he composed the Mandragola, it was to paint in glaring See also:colours the corruption of Italian society. It shows how a morality; and we are angry with him because he merged the hues of ethics in one See also:grey monotone of politics. In person Machiavelli was of middle height, See also:black-haired, with rather a small head, very See also:bright eyes and slightly aquiline nose. His thin, close lips often See also:broke into a smile of See also:sarcasm. His activity was almost feverish. When unemployed in work or study he was not averse to the society of boon companions, gave himself readily to transient amours, and corresponded in a tone of cynical bad taste. At the same time he lived on terms of intimacy with worthy men. See also:Varchi says that " in his conversation he was pleasant, obliging to his intimates, the friend of virtuous persons." Those who care to understand the contradictions of which such a character was capable should study his correspondence with Vettori. It would be unfair to See also:charge what is repulsive in their letters wholly on the habits of the times, for wide familiarity with the published correspondence of similar men at the same epoch brings one acquainted with little that is so disagreeable. (J. A. S.) Among the many See also:editions of Machiavelli's works the one in 8 vols., dated Italia, 1813, may be mentioned, and the more comprehensive ones published by A. Parenti (Florence, 1843) and by A. Usigli (Florence 1857). P. Fanfani and L. Passerini began another, which promised to be the most complete of all ; but only 6 vols. were published (Florence, 1873-1877) ; the work contains many new and important documents on Machiavelli's life. The best biography is the See also:standard work of Pasquale See also:Villari, La Sloria di Niccolb Machiavelli e de' suoi tempi (Florence, 1877-1882; latest ed., 1895; Eng. trans. by Linda Villari, See also:London, 1892) ; in vol. ii. there is an exhaustive criticism of the various authors who have written on Machiavelli. See also T. See also:Mundt, Niccolb Machiavelli and das System der modernen Politik (3rd ed., See also:Berlin, 1867) ; E. Feuerlein, " Zur Machiavelli-Fr¢ e " in H. von See also:Sybel's Histor. Zeitschrift (See also:Munich, 1868) ; P. S. See also:Mancini, Prelezioni See also:con un saggio sul Machiavelli; F. Nitti, Machiavelli nella vita e nelle opere (See also:Naples, 1876); O. Tomasini, La Vitae gli scritti di Niccolb Machiavelli (See also:Turin, 1883) ; L. A. Burd, Il Principe, by Niccolb Machiavelli (See also:Oxford, 1891); See also:Lord See also:Morley, Machiavelli (See also:Romanes lecture, Oxford, 1897). The See also:Cambridge Modern History, vol. i. (Cambridge, 1903), contains an essay on Machiavelli by L. A. Burd, with a very full biography. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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