The Comic Ethos of Il Principe

Machiavelli sat down to pen Il Principe with "the intention of producing something useful" (ma sendo l'intenzione mia stata scrivere cosa che sia utile a chi la intende; 15, 3:159).¹ Where other political tutors had wandered in utopia, he would offer practical counsel for coping with the unavoidable reality of Fortune. Yet at the crucial moment, he appears to falter. Il Principe culminates with an inconclusive speculation on free will that leads Machiavelli to vacillate about the ingredients of worldly achievement. First he suggests that brashness and prudence each have their place, then he implies that caution is the foundation of success, and finally he insists that it is always best to be bold. Some scholars such as Hanna Pitkin and Victoria Kahn have argued that these convolutions of perspective reflect deeper, unacknowledged tensions in Machiavelli's thought.² Others like J. G. A. Pocock and Stephen Fallon have been more charitable, arguing that he intentionally dispenses contradictory advice because of his republican dislike for princes.³ But whether critics have seen Machiavelli's discussion of Fortune as failed or fraudulent, they have generally agreed that it does not make good on its stated goals. It promises practical guidance on founding and maintaining successful polities, but in the end, cannot or will not deliver.

Over the following pages, I will present an alternative to this view of Il Principe by focusing on a neglected influence on Machiavelli's views on Fortune. Scholars have devoted great attention to his medieval and classical influences,⁴ but by emphasizing Livy, Boethius, Polybius, Savonarola, and other political and religious theorists, they have overlooked perhaps the most practically oriented source of Machiavelli's attitudes about Fortune: dramatic comedy. Comedy was viewed in the sixteenth century as a guide to dealing with everyday life,⁵ and Machiavelli's own particular interest in comedy has been well documented.⁶ He wrote an imitation of Aristophanes, translated Terence's Andria, and produced two original comedies, one of which—La Mandragola—has repeatedly been read as a dramatic illustration of the arguments of Il Principe.⁷ Its hero's success has been taken as evidence of the usefulness of abandoning traditional moral scruples,⁸ its heroine as an example of the adaptability of virtu,⁹ and the entire play as a disavowal of republican principles.¹⁰ Even as these readings have shown an affinity between La Mandragola and Il Principe, however, they have missed an opportunity. By seeing comedy as an extension of Machiavelli's political philosophy, they have ignored the possibility that influence flowed in the other direction, that Machiavelli's interest in comedy might have shaped Il Principe.

In what follows, I will explore this possibility. It is unclear whether Il Principe or La Mandragola was written first,¹¹ but Machiavelli's interest in comedy predated his political writings,¹² and the comic tradition that inspired La Mandragola offers the most ancient surviving example of the contradiction that inflects the final chapter of Il Principe. Before Livy remarked, "Fortune prevails over mortal plots" (Fortuna, quae plus consiliis humanis pollet; 45.5.1),¹³ one of Plautus's plotters fretted: "Fortune herself upsets a hundred mortal plans" (centum doctum hominum consilia sola haec devincit dea, / Fortuna; 678–79).¹⁴ And before Livy announced "Fortune aids the bold" (sed eventus docuit fortes fortunam iuvare; 8.29.5), one of Terence's characters counseled: "Fortune favors the bold" (fortes fortuna adiuvat; 203).¹⁵ The early date of these comic views of Fortune, moreover, gives them a special place in Machiavelli's timeline of Italy. Livy, Boethius, and the other writers typically cited as sources for Il Principe lived after the collapse of the Roman republic, Machiavelli's favorite example of a successful Italian state. In contrast, Plautus and Terence wrote during the height of the republic, and so they are far more optimistic than Livy about people's capacity to triumph over Fortune. Accepting that Fortune dooms all mortal plans, characters in Roman comedy nevertheless plot to change their luck for the better, and often, they succeed. There is a direct line...