ALL of William Shakespeare’s historical dramas deal with the struggle for power. The world of stage in the bard’s historical plays closely resembles the art scene of 16th century Europe and its political world theatre.
During Renaissance, the assassination of Julius Caesar became one of the classic tales in history. No educated Renaissance European could have avoided thinking at some time about his death.
The man who first theorized power politics in the region was Niccolo Machiavelli. He was born in Florence in 1469 and was a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci, a little older than Michelangelo. He must have met both great artists in his youth. Other than that, little is known about his early years. What we do know is that at the age of 29, Niccolo was secretary of the Council of Ten and a key figure in forming the complex foreign policy of the Florentine republic.
Back then, Italy was a patchwork of mutually feuding principalities and small republics with two great powers, France and Spain wielding their influence in the background. Machiavelli very closely observed all the treacherous intrigues, violence and diplomatic moves and formed his opinion. Leaders of the republic of Florence, sensing his political acumen, sent him to other countries on different diplomatic missions. He spent a few years abroad, constantly on the move. He drew his conclusions and wrote them down. Some of them appeared in writing immediately in a 10-page diplomatic report he sent home by courier. Other conclusions were not available to the general reading public until 1532. When The Prince was published five years after its author’s death, it proved Machiavelli’s ticket to immortality. He died in the year 1527, a few months before foreign soldiery burned and plundered Rome, bringing to a gruesome end one of the most brilliant chapters in cultural history.
Machiavelli’s active period as council secretary and diplomat in Florence covered only a dozen years or so, the first decade of the 16th century to be precise. This coincided with the period between the fall of the monk-dictator Savonarola in 1498 and the return of the house of Medici in 1512, leading to the transformation of the republic into a duchy. The later change in the political system also came very close to costing Machiavelli his life. He was thrown into prison, labelled a conspirator, tortured on the rack, and was banished forever from the inner circles of politics. He spent most of his last years in his ancestral land, a few kilometres from Florence, living a modest life. This was the time when he wrote The Prince.
Machiavelli also wrote other books. A a book on the art of war and one on the history of Rome immediately come to mind. The latter work in particular, Discourses (Discorsi) enjoys a very scholarly reputation. However, The Prince eclipses all his other works.
The Prince is perhaps one of many guides to the art of political rule written during the 900 years between the time of Charlemagne and that of Louis XIV. It is unique in its straight-forwardness. In the book Machiavelli teaches the technique of acquiring power without any circumscriptions or scruples. It means how to have political power, avoiding the mistakes that can cost a prince his position and in a serious case his life. He also tells the reader that circumstances may change with time and place, but actual political conditions remain the same.
Using post-modern terminology, The Prince is a ‘cubistic text’. Machiavelli reads off all the various stages in a political event at once. The dark legend surrounding him was probably born even before the ink dried on his first edition. He stands behind his brutally rank advice to those who seek princely power. A few decades after his death, Machiavelli was transformed into a devil’s advocate in Europe.
For more than 300 years, The Prince was on the Catholic church’s list of forbidden books and Protestant authorities were equally quick to see in it a denial of Christian normative values. For centuries Machiavelli’s name was synonymous with the devil, although some did statesman practise Machiavellism. It was only in last few decades that Machiavelli’s political pragmatism was openly praised and appreciated. According to this approach to his work Machiavelli was an objective reporter, a cool analyst, and a practical philosopher.
It is interesting to note that The Prince on which the author’s immortal ‘immoral’ reputation rests, was intended for the new Medici ruler of Florence, and Machiavelli wrote a letter of dedication to Lorenzo de Medici. But it is uncertain whether Lorenzo ever received it. The Prince was not actually published until after Machiavelli’s death in 1532, although copies of its manuscript did come out in his own lifetime. The book was banned in 1559.
Machiavelli was a nationalist as well. His patriotic exhortation that Italy be united and that foreign invaders be driven from her precious soil manifests his inordinate love for the land. The concept of Italian nationalism as an imperative is as current as any modern proclamation of war of national liberation. It wouldn’t be disputable to say that Machiavelli was one of the men of Renaissance, whose ideas still affect many a mind.
