Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Harvey Mansfield has argued that despite the prominence of sex as a central plot device in Machiavelli’s Mandragola, it is not a play about eros. He is correct in this regard: insofar as love enters into the plot, it seems to do so only as a derivative of the baser passions. However, desire in Mandragola exercises a tremendous force, and it is not, end of the day, without reference to love. This paper argues, then, that although the Mandragola is not a play about eros in the classical sense, it is certainly a play that explores love and desire, and one that reveals something about the place of these in politics. It argues that although love in the Mandragola seems to be debased, it remains as powerful and politically relevant a force as forms of love that point to something higher. This baser love disarms those who are vulnerable to their desires and so provides arms to those who possess the virtù to manipulate those desires. Insofar as it can be wielded as a weapon, then, love becomes a political tool, one that I will argue is, for Machiavelli, a potent accessory to virtù. The paper examines Machiavelli’s treatment of love and desire in the Mandragola within this context, and considers what insights this yields into the interplay of desire and virtue in his political teachings.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper offers an exegesis of Machiavelii’s play La Mandragola and attempts to draw out its connections to the author’s broader political theory. In the first part of the paper I read the play as a re-telling of the ancient tragedy of Lucretia in the Histories of Livy as a modern comedy and analyze the ‘remedy’ that Machiavelli seems to offer for the Florentine politics of his day – a politics devoid of ancient virtù and filled with solely self-interested and ambitious individuals. Reading the play with this lens, I conclude in this section that the ‘hero’ of the play closely accords to the virtuous prince that Machiavelli describes in his work of that name: he is able to overcome fortune through virtù, instrumentally uses religion in order to achieve his goals, and relies mainly on fraud, which is most often a more effective means than force.
In the second part of the paper, I step back from this comic reading and question whether this ‘Machiavellian’ remedy is the real remedy Machiavelli seeks to offer for the politics of his day. In doing so I call attention to the fact that his ‘remedy’ includes no revival of ancient virtue, no renewal of the civic nature of religion, and no truly patriotic citizens – all of which were facets of the Roman Republic that Machiavelli highly praised in his Discourses and sought a return to in the politics of his day. This second reading of the play highlights its tragic elements, as well as illuminates the tragic dimensions of Machiavelli’s own political thought. This tragic reading of the play draws attention to Machiavelli’s emphasis on and concern with the many forces he believes are largely beyond human control – forces such as the overwhelming power of Fortuna and the inevitable rise and fall of all political regimes – which human beings must struggle against if they wish to shape their own political worlds.
In offering this reading, I challenge many of the standard readings of Machiavelli as the quintessential modern thinker who sought man’s domination of nature and a break from the Polybian political cycle. In contrast to this view, I assert that Machiavelli’s focus on human strength is dependent upon his belief in ultimate human weakness; yet, princes and politicians must believe that they have this strength if they are to act in the world and change it, even if the human power to act in the world is, in the end, dwarfed by chance and Fortuna. I conclude with an analysis of Machiavelli’s political writings, including his letters, which exhibit this more robust vision of human life and fundamentally call into question his modernity.