The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli; Essays on the Literary Works

by Sullivan, Vickie

• ISBN13: 9780300087970
• ISBN10: 0300087977
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2000-08-11
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

The Italian statesman and political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli, well known as the author of The Prince, wrote not only grave, cold-blooded political tracts but also comedies, poems, fables, and letters that are seemingly lighthearted. What are we to make of the two extremes in Machiavelli's writings? This volume brings together outstanding scholars in the fields of literature, political science, and history to explore the meanings of Machiavelli's literary works, the light as well as the dark. Contemplating the comic and tragic in Machiavelli, the contributors offer new perspectives on his obsessions, intentions, and capabilities and reveal through sometimes opposing visions off their subject much about his political-historical treatises as well.

The nine essays in the book consider nearly all of Machiavelli's literary and dramatic works, including the lively and ribald comedy Mandragola, the comic play Clizia, the ambivalent poem "The Ass", the symbolic Florentine Histories, and Machiavelli's fascinating correspondence. The contributors to the volume -- am

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	ix
Vickie B. Sullivan
The Cuckold in Machiavelli's Mandragola	1	(29)
Harvey C. Mansfield
Clizia and the Enlightenment of Private Life	30	(27)
Robert Faulkner
Comedy, Machiavelli's Letters, and His Imaginary Republics	57	(21)
Arlene W. Saxonhouse
Machiavelli's Discourse on Language	78	(24)
Susan Meld Shell
Tragic Machiavelli	102	(18)
Ronald L. Martinez
Lost in the Wilderness: Love and Longing in L'Asino	120	(18)
Michael Harvey
The Politician as Writer	138	(21)
Franco Fido
Beyond Limits: Time, Space, Language in Machiavelli's Decennali	159	(17)
Barbara J. Godorecci
The Classical Heritage in Machiavelli's Histories: Symbol and Poetry as Historical Literature	176	(17)
Edmund E. Jacobitti
Contributors	193	(2)
Notes	195	(44)
Index	239