Comedy and politics: Machiavelli’s magical contemporary drama

This article analyzes the relationship between two of Machiavelli’s political texts The Prince (1513) and the Discourses on Livy (1512–1517), and his popular comedy The Mandrake Root (La Mandragola) (1515). Through an examination of these works, I will show what influence his political ideas may have had on his comedy and, conversely, how key points in his comedy emerge as central ideas in his political texts. By demonstrating how his texts communicate with each other, I will show how he recycles established concepts and even changes their meaning.