Verita effettuale della cosa politica in Machiavelli's mandrake

Abstract

In The Mandrake, Machiavelli uses the form of a comedic play to point at a way of establishing a constitution suitable for people who put their personal interest before the common good. In this paper we first present the play's characters as champions of an age that is radically deprived of sense and purpose. In Ligurio's plan to win over the beautiful but married Lucretia, we recover the guidelines for the peaceful creation of a new constitution within the shadows of the old political system which, debilitated and weak, offers no resistance. Finally, in this seemingly frivolous play, we uncover a pathway to a hidden revolution, accomplished by the statesman's bravado and his advisor's cunning. We conclude that in The Mandrake Machiavelli sketches up the scenario which never got sufficient attention in his other works: how to establish a good constitution within a corrupt republic.