CHAPTER THREE

Machiavelli the Man His Major Works His Ideas

and His Patrimony

Among the major characteristics of the Renaissance period were its belief in the

potentialities of human mind and that is what was neglected throughout the previous

period the Middle Ages which were completely preoccupied with the universal and the

transcendental1

One of the most important and widely read Renaissance thinkers was the Italian

philosopher political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli He was the central

figure of the political scene of the Italian Renaissance a tumultuous period of plots wars

among city states and continued shifting alliances Bertrand Russell stated The

Renaissance through it produced no important theoretical philosopher produced one

man of supreme eminence in political philosophy Niccolo Machiavelli2

This chapter is devoted to deal with Machiavelli as a man his political and

philosophical ideas and his best known work The Prince This pamphlet was the direct

cause of Machiavellis fame as a sinister and ruthless politician He was always

associated with corrupt and totalitarian government Machiavelli had come to be

identified almost exclusively with this book During the sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries Machiavellis name would be used as a synonym of deviousness and cruelty to

the point that no thinker was so demonized as Machiavelli

31 Machiavelli Biographical Information

One of the very few political thinkers of the five preceding centuries Niccolo

Machiavelli persisted enjoying the memory of the present time in spite of the elapsed

years His name remained outstanding in the popular culture of the present-day as much

as in the academic halls3 C R Verma provides us with a very condensed description of

this political philosopher He says

41

Niccolo Machiavelli the most distinguished versatile genius of the Italian Renaissance an embodiment of the rarest quintessence of human intelligence and intellect a master-mind of the Art of Governing a shrewd diplomat and a subtle politician a pragmatic thinker and a practicalist a profound political scientist and a political philosopher an outstanding prototype of worldly wisdom and prudence a historian-poet and a dramatist a pious man and an amoralist was born at Florence on May 3 14694

Niccolo Machiavelli was the son of a Florence lawyer Bernardo and Bartolomea de

Nerli from the neighbourhood of Santa Trinita His family was prominent in Florence It

was neither wealthy nor powerful Poverty was not enough cause to prevent Machiavellis

father from providing him with good education and that is what enabled Machiavelli to

learn rhetoric grammar and Latin It is very important to mention that Machiavelli never

learned Greek even though Florence was one of the Greek scholarship centers and that is

why he was not acquainted with the original copies of the great works of Greek

philosophy and historiography Latin world in contrast was quite easy for him Although

that little is known about Machiavellis youth one of the truths that is known for certain

about his early life is that he copied out Lucretius De rerum natura (on the Nature of

Things) the great poem describing the origins of nature-the sea plants and animals-and

the condition of man5

Machiavelli was the first male child after two daughters His mother was a pious

woman She was a writer of hymns and religious poems and that is what indicated that

Machiavelli might have learned his skills of writing from her but over divisions on

religion he stood with his father and the Roman historians He grew up very close to his

father while the choice of his younger brother Totto was to go into priesthood6

Machiavellirsquos mother died in 1496 and his father in 15007

As a leading administrator in the new Florentine republic Machiavellis first

appearance in the unstable political scene was in 1498 after defeating the ruling regime8

In the period from 19 June 1498 until 7 November 1512 Machiavelli was elected to serve

in the chancery of the Florentine republic which consisted mainly of a body of quasi-

42

permanent officials who administered the republics internal and external affairs carrying

out policies which had been determined by the citys magistrates and councilsrdquo9

Machiavelli used to help the political faction that disposed Girolamo Savonarola the

dominant religious and political figure of Florence In the same year of Savonaralas

execution Machiavelli was appointed as the head of Second Chancery of the Republic In

his position as a Chancellor and Secretary to the Ten of Liberty and Peace a sensitive

government agency dealing chiefly with warfare and foreign affairrs Machiavelli

played an important role in both local politics and diplomatic missions as a diplomat in

foreign countries10 In his occupation Machiavelli was depending on the help of a group

of assistants like Andrea di Romolo Agostino Vespucci and Biagio Bounaccorsi He

trusted them as faithful friends During the period from 1499 to 1512 Maciavelli got the

chance to meet the prominent leaders of that time such as the King of France Louis XII

the Pope Julius II the Emperor Maximilian I and the Duke of Valentino Cesare Borgia

Machiavelli visited many Italian courts in addition to France and the Tyrol His

occupations helped him to obtain new discernments into real political situations and to

know directly the minds the ambitions the vices and the (few) virtues of the political

leaders who were shaping the destiny of Italy and Europe11

In 1502-3 Machiavelli concentrated on how Cesare Borgia enlarged his land-holding

in Italy depending on a mixture of skilled statesmanship and cruelty12

Machiavelli won the honour of establishing and commanding the militia of Florence

He got benefit of his occupation in the republic government in addition to the personal

effect he had on Soderini to adopt the idea of forming a citizen militia In 1505

Machiavelli received the chance that he was looking for when the mercenaries employed

by the city in the interminable assault on Pisa raised a serious mutiny The commands of

ten companies did not agree to go on fighting Machiavellis attitude towards this

treachery was an elaborated plan for the aim of substituting the mercenaries by founding

citizen militia His desire was achieved in 1506 when the government supported the idea

of reviving the militia giving the agreement to recruit ten thousands men and to provide

them with arms uniforms and pay13

43

Machiavelli always believed that the mercenaries would not be dependable to form

enough army for the task of defending the republic and that is why he was authorized to

recruit and drill Florentine soldiers in order to found the seed of a patriotic army In 1509

this army was in a position to retake the city of Pisa which was lost to the French by

Piero II This achievement represented the highpoint of Machiavellis military and

diplomatic post In The Prince he always emphasized the significance of having patriotic

army rather than depending on mercenaries14

In 1512 the Spanish forces invaded Italy and helped the Medici to overcome the

republic army and to dismantle the government The Medici a family which had

governed Florence during long periods returned to authority and as a result Machiavelli

was fired from his post and deported into a form of internal exile15

In 1513 Machiavelli was mistakenly accused of plotting against the Medici He was

arrested and tormented for several weeks After this occurrence although pardoned he

was obliged to retire from public life and that is what offered him the suitable climate and

the occasion to devote himself to literary pursuits A few days after they discharged him

on 18 March 1513 Machiavelli wrote the following lines to his friend Francesco Vettori

in Rome

As for turning my face toward Fortuna I should like to get this pleasure form these troubles of mine that I have borne them so straightforwardly that I am proud ofmyselffor it and consider myself more of a man than IbelievedI was And if these new masters of ours see fit not to leave me lying on the ground I shall be happy and believe that I shall act in such a way that they too will have reason to be proud of me And if they should not I shall get on as I did when I came here I was born in poverty and at an early age learned how to scrimp rather than to thrive16

Machiavelli wanted to inform his friend that he had faced the false responsibility of a

plot against the Medici He talked about his bravery of being patient to endure the pain

which was inflicted on him in order to extort an acknowledgment which would lead him

to execution He mentioned another painful case his dismissal from his occupation

44

Machiavelli was also providing significant report about himself and his style of dealing

with life He was telling his friend that very early on in his life he had accustomed

himself to look at men and life from the side of poverty exclusion and adversity17

After several attempts to gain the contentment of the Medici and as a result of the

help of his friends whom he did not stop his in insistence for interceding Machiavelli

began to come back to the favour of the ruling family In 1520 he was authorized by the

Cardinal Giulio de Medici to compose the History of Florence it was achieved in 1525

and proffered to the Cardinal who ascended the Papal throne as Clement VIII in Rome

There were forthcoming tasks from the Medici government but time did not aid

Machiavelli who could not achieve full participation as he died on 21 June 152718

According to David K Fray the Florentine again was able to remove the Medici out

of Florence and refounded the republic Machiavelli ran to regain the post that he had lost

several years ago but his hopes were in Vain They were frustrated because of the fame

that The Prince had established which had made thepeople of Florence think that

Machiavelli was like the Medici As a result he did not retake his occupation Months

later Machiavelli fell ill his health started to fail him and he died19

Machiavelli political books became widely famous in 1564 They were considered

dangerous and put on the Church index of officially forbidden books20 The

misrepresentation and misunderstanding of his works depicted them as almost diabolical

works The clergy were the most violent attackers of his writings The first great edition

of Machiavellis works was issued in 1782 It was a date from which his fame as the

founder of modern political sciences steadily increased21

In his writing with the assistance of his imagination Machiavelli was able to know

how to take advantage of the wide experience he had gained for the goal of converting it

into a new shape and that is what enabled Machiavelli to leave a great personal seal on

the history of political thought

He would always remembered be by the political leaders ofall hues and colours and the Lords of political philosophy would continue to hold him in high esteem World statement would never forget his

45

great goodly suggestions and advice on the art of governing a state22

32 Machiavelli the Major Works

Diplomacys loss was posteritys gain A miserable soul who continued to follow

political affairs with the painful longing of a spurned lover Machiavelli produced two

classics of political thoughthellip23 A small pamphlet called The Prince was Machiavellis

first writing while he was spending his enforced retirement It was ultimately the one

most often associated with Machiavellis name to be studied with details separately The

Discourses on the Ten Books of Titus Livy henceforth The Discourses was

Machiavellis another major contribution to political philosophy It was an explanation of

the precepts of republican rule edited as a formula of a series of comments on the works

of the well-known historian of the Roman Republic Unlike The Prince The Discourses

took a long period of time to be written completely Machiavelli almost commenced to

write The Discourses in 1514 and finished writing in 1519 It was published

posthumously in 153124

Some writers claimed that The Prince and The Discourses were inconsistent with

each other in treating the subject of government This idea according to George H

Sabine is not acceptable putting in the consideration the circumstances in which The

Prince was written Both books present aspects of the same subject_the causes of the

rise and decline of states and the means by which statesmen can make them permanentrdquo

These two books showed specific features that caused Machiavellis fame the use of

unethical means for achieving political aims and the belief that government should

mainly depend on force and craft25

The Discourses supplied good guidance to those who tried to found or repair a

republic a form of government based on popular consent and control It was three

books in one Book I shed light on the inner constitution of the republic Book II tackled

the affairs of war Book III was to a large extent like the tenets of The Prince in dealing

with individual leadership26 In The Discourses Machiavelli concentrated on the

46

principles that kept the state away from corruption He shed special light on the religious

rites as a key element in controlling the society27 In this respect he said

Those princes and those republics which desire toremainfree from corruption should above all else maintainincorrupt the ceremonies of their religion andshould hold them always in veneration for there can be no surer indication of the decline of a country than to see divine worship neglected28

The Discourses was dedicated to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai two

of the greatest exponents of the Orti Oricellari in Florence where aristocratic young

people met in order to discuss politics art and literature29

Machiavellis other important contributions was a military treatise under the title The

Art of War Unlike The Prince and The Discourses it was the only book that was

published during Machiavellis life time30 The Art of War was divided into a preface and

seven books which arranged as series of dialogues that took place in Orti Oricellari It

was a dialogue in the humanist tradition of imitating classical forms31

The purpose of this book was mentioned by Fabrizio within the opening pages when

he stated

To honor and reward virtue not to have contempt forpoverty to esteem the modes and orders of military discipline to constrain citizens to love one another to live without factions to esteem less the private than the public good and other such things which could easily be added in these times32

321 The Prince an Introduction

The Prince was the first of Machiavellis major writings from his period of enforced

retirement during which he stayed in his farmhouse in Santrsquo Adrea in Percussina a few

miles south of Florence33 Machiavelli wrote this treatise with the aim of convincing the

dedicatee of the book that he knew well the art of the state even if he had served the

republic and his knowledge of this art was better than the Humanist rhetoricians and

the contemporary practitioneers34 The Prince was the child of Machiavellis whim a

47

pamphlet which is to bear the title The Prince and then sets out to dedicate it to one of

the men in power a prince who-the author fervently hopes-will repay him in princely

fashion with silver and situation35 Bertrand Russel supported this idea saying that ldquoThe

Prince was designed to please the Medici and that when it was written a Medici had

just become Pope (Leo x)36

Peter Bondanella did not agree with the idea that Machiavelli wrote this pamphlet in

order to please the Medici for the sake of getting an occupation in the new government

that the Medici had founded in Florence or in Rome under the protection of the Medici

Pope Leo x The fixed fact according to Bondanella is that Machiavelli tried to get a

position from this family but he did not compose his little treatise for the goal of

obtaining the favour of the Medici His hope was to be offered a new employment in

recognition of his unquestionable abilities in the art as a merit for his qualifications and

impeccable honesty but not as a reward for cajolery Bondanellas witness to support his

idea was the following extract taken from the famous letter that Machiavelli sent to his

friend Francesco Vettori on 10 December 151337

Then again I am anxious for the House of Medici tobegin using me at some negotiation or other if they are ever to begin If I should not succeed in winning them afterwards I would always be sorry I had not given them the book Then again if they were to read it they would see that I was not sleeping or idling all those fifteen years that I devoted to statecraft Anybody it seems to me should be glad to have the services of a man who has acquired so much experience at the expense of other employers Of my trustworthiness there could be no doubt Having so long kept faith with people I would not be likely to begin betraying now A man who has kept his word loyally for forty-three years as I have could not change his nature very easily The fact that I am a poor man is proof of my loyalty and honour38

But the last three lines of Machiavellis dedication to Lorenzo de Medici can be

interpreted as an attempt to win Medici favour It would be better for Machiavelli not to

write these lines They embrace a lot of exploring and that is what reflected a bad effect

on the great value of the previous speech At the end of the dedication Machiavelli said

48

If Your Magnificence will at some time turn your eyes from the summit of your high

position toward these low places you will realize to what degree I unjustly suffer a great

and continuous malignity of fortune(The Prince p 6)

The Prince is undoubtedly a distinguished landmark in the history of political

philosophy It is

A skilful artifice in statecraft a mighty manual in the art of Government and governing a pole-star to guide the sailing ship of rulers princes princedoms and political leaders at the helm of state-affairs state administration and its management It is an exploration into the very genesis origin of the formation and acquisition of a Government hellip a guidelines for rulers kings and princes hereditary princedoms and other forms of Governments newly formed and acquired It is a recipe for all the ills that inflict the states and the statesmen kings and kingdoms a golden-touch to transmute the functioning of a Government safe and secure a panacea for the ailments of a state its citizens and the subjects39

Machiavelli never based any political discussion on Christian or biblical ground

Depending on historical examples The Prince was a political treatise that offered

advices disregarding all moral and ethical values It was the first book to divorce

statecraft from the ethics and that is why it could be seen as unique In The Prince

Machiavelli did not tell what typical prince or principality was but he illustrated by

examples the successful princes in getting and maintaining power All of his examples

were driven from his personal observations written during his occupation as a diplomat

for Florence and his deep reading of ancient history40

Although The Prince was a short book it was the most remembered of

Machiavellies writings The unscrupulous methods Machiavelli used to suggest his

prince was the direct cause that made his name synonym to a nefarious political

conspiracy bringing the term Machiavellian to be used widely as a disdainful term

Such a rulers first duty Machiavelli argued was to do anything it took to secure and

maintain power even if that meant overriding customary moral convention41 It means

all the means could be used for the aim of founding and preserving the power The worst

49

and the treasonable deeds of the governor were justified The aims of the prince should be

consented in spite of the use of immoral means for the sake of achieving these aims and

that is what represents the main theme of this political treatise It is of course the end

justifies the means

In England Machiavellis book was forbidden by the Tudor politicians Its practical

cornerstone creeds were interpreted negatively and reductively It was one of the reasons

that help in emerging Old Nick an English term which indicated a link between

Machiavelli and the Satan42

322 The Price a Summery

Concentrating on the most important points in this book with quotations the

summery will go forward chapter by chapter The Prince consisted of twenty-six

chapters in addition to the dedication It was originally written to be presented to

Giuliano de Medici who may well esteem this treatise After Giulianos death

Machiavelli changed the dedication to Lorenzo de Medici who almost did not read it43

The dedication could be seen as a letter in which Machiavelli qualified his book as a

summery of his knowledge of the deeds of great men that came as a result of a long

experience in modern matters and constant study of the history of the Old Ages This

letter was skillfully employed by Machiavelli to draw attention to his own actions and

good services44 Machiavelli wanted to say that he knew the art of the state better than

anyone else and that his expertise was safer than the traditional wisdom that had inspired

Medicean rule since the days of Cosimo45 About this Machiavelli said

I have not found among my belongings anything that I might value more or prize so much as the knowledge of the deeds of great men that I have learned from a long experience in modern affairs and a continuous study of antiquity Having with great care and for a long time thought about and examined these deedshellip(The Prince P 5)

50

I

How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are and the Ways They Are

Acquired

In this chapter Machiavelli mentioned that the states were of two types republics

and principalities Then he explained that the principalities were either hereditary or new

The new principalities were completely new as was Milan for Francesco Sforzardquo or

similar to an addition added to an old state like the kingdom of Naples for the king of

Spain (The Prince P 7)

II

Of Hereditary Principalities

Machiavelli stated that the hereditary emirate could be governed easier than the new

one because of two reasons The first was that the people in the hereditary emirate were

familiar with their prince and his family the good prince needed no more than track the

paces of the preceding princes The second was that the people loved their prince and his

family unless he committed fatal mistakes that hurt them(The Prince pp 7-8)

III

Of Mixed Principalities

Machiavelli concentrated on the ways used by the Romans to govern the acquired

territories He said

In the regions they conquered the Romans followedthese rules very carefully They sent out colonies had dealings with the less powerful without increasing their strength put down the powerful and did not allow powerful foreigners to gain prestige there(The Prince P12)

Machiavelli supported the princes who wished to acquire more provinces describing

this wish as an ordinary thing The princes who were able to achieve this task should not

51

be blamed Those who were not able to do so and constantly tried even if they badly

affected their emirates should be condemned (The Prince P14)

He advised the prince not to avoid the necessary war saying that one should never

allow disorder to persist in order to avoid going to war because one does not avoid a war

but instead defers it to your disadvantage (The Prince P15)

At the end of this chapter Machiavelli inferred an important rule which according to

him rarely failed He believed that anyone who helped another to be powerful came to

destroy himself ldquobecause that power has been brought about by either through cunning or

by force and both of these two qualities are suspect to the one who has become

powerfulrdquo (The Prince P 15-16) In regard to this rule it seemed that Machiavelli had

read the line of poetry uttered by the Arabic poet Man Bin Aus Al Muzni who belonged

to the pre-Islamic period

46 أعلمھ الرمایة كل یوم ولما إستد ساعده رماني

In this line the poet addressed someone saying I teach him everyday how to fling the

javelin but when he learnt flinging accurately the first to be killed was me

IV

Why the Kingdom of Darius Occupied by Alexander Did Not Rebel Against His

Successors After the Death of Alexander

In this chapter Machiavelli defined two ways to govern all types of emirates The

first was to be governed by the prince with the assistance of his servants who used to

help as ministers to rule the principalities The second was that the kingdom could be

governed by the prince and barons who occupied this status as a result of the antiquity

of their bloodline (The Prince P16) In such cases the barons had to have their own

dominations and subjects

In many cases the victorious depended on his lords Machiavelli gave 16th century

France as an instance to explain this case These principalities were easy to occupy but

difficult to take hold of When the people of the kingdom supported their governor it

52

would be difficult to take hold of This case could be solved by removing the old

bloodline of the prince Machiavelli gave the example of the Persian empire of Darius III

attacked by Alexander the Great to explain this case

V

How Cities or Principalities Should be Governed That Lived by Their Own Laws

before They Were Occupied

Machiavelli explained how to rule the occupied states which were habitual to

manage their affairs according to their own laws He limited three ways The first was to

destroy the old state and to found a new one The second was that the victor had to live in

the occupied state The third was to let the state to go on according to its own laws under

the condition of paying tax yearly The victor had to leave a group of his followers in

order to keep his authority and to explain to the people the importance of their need for

the victor to protect and support them It was insured to keep the state But the strongest

way to govern the occupied state was to destroy this state completely (The Prince

PP19-20)

VI

Of New Principalities Acquired by Ones Own Troops and Virtue

Machiavelli maintained that reforming an existing order represented the most

serious and difficult things that they could do for the reason that the people were

naturally against the change He emphasized that such a task needed consideration of the

greatest example of virtue in history Machiavelli wanted to say that having qualities of

virtue was a key element if a prince wished to keep his principality Quentin Skinner

commented saying that the possession of virtursquo is likewise said to be crucial to the yet

higher end of achieving princely glory47

Concerning this case Machiavelli named examples of those who became princes by

their virtue but not fortune He mentioned Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and others

of their kind (The Prince P21) Any review of their achievements and their lives could

53

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

Niccolo Machiavelli the most distinguished versatile genius of the Italian Renaissance an embodiment of the rarest quintessence of human intelligence and intellect a master-mind of the Art of Governing a shrewd diplomat and a subtle politician a pragmatic thinker and a practicalist a profound political scientist and a political philosopher an outstanding prototype of worldly wisdom and prudence a historian-poet and a dramatist a pious man and an amoralist was born at Florence on May 3 14694

Niccolo Machiavelli was the son of a Florence lawyer Bernardo and Bartolomea de

Nerli from the neighbourhood of Santa Trinita His family was prominent in Florence It

was neither wealthy nor powerful Poverty was not enough cause to prevent Machiavellis

father from providing him with good education and that is what enabled Machiavelli to

learn rhetoric grammar and Latin It is very important to mention that Machiavelli never

learned Greek even though Florence was one of the Greek scholarship centers and that is

why he was not acquainted with the original copies of the great works of Greek

philosophy and historiography Latin world in contrast was quite easy for him Although

that little is known about Machiavellis youth one of the truths that is known for certain

about his early life is that he copied out Lucretius De rerum natura (on the Nature of

Things) the great poem describing the origins of nature-the sea plants and animals-and

the condition of man5

Machiavelli was the first male child after two daughters His mother was a pious

woman She was a writer of hymns and religious poems and that is what indicated that

Machiavelli might have learned his skills of writing from her but over divisions on

religion he stood with his father and the Roman historians He grew up very close to his

father while the choice of his younger brother Totto was to go into priesthood6

Machiavellirsquos mother died in 1496 and his father in 15007

As a leading administrator in the new Florentine republic Machiavellis first

appearance in the unstable political scene was in 1498 after defeating the ruling regime8

In the period from 19 June 1498 until 7 November 1512 Machiavelli was elected to serve

in the chancery of the Florentine republic which consisted mainly of a body of quasi-

42

permanent officials who administered the republics internal and external affairs carrying

out policies which had been determined by the citys magistrates and councilsrdquo9

Machiavelli used to help the political faction that disposed Girolamo Savonarola the

dominant religious and political figure of Florence In the same year of Savonaralas

execution Machiavelli was appointed as the head of Second Chancery of the Republic In

his position as a Chancellor and Secretary to the Ten of Liberty and Peace a sensitive

government agency dealing chiefly with warfare and foreign affairrs Machiavelli

played an important role in both local politics and diplomatic missions as a diplomat in

foreign countries10 In his occupation Machiavelli was depending on the help of a group

of assistants like Andrea di Romolo Agostino Vespucci and Biagio Bounaccorsi He

trusted them as faithful friends During the period from 1499 to 1512 Maciavelli got the

chance to meet the prominent leaders of that time such as the King of France Louis XII

the Pope Julius II the Emperor Maximilian I and the Duke of Valentino Cesare Borgia

Machiavelli visited many Italian courts in addition to France and the Tyrol His

occupations helped him to obtain new discernments into real political situations and to

know directly the minds the ambitions the vices and the (few) virtues of the political

leaders who were shaping the destiny of Italy and Europe11

In 1502-3 Machiavelli concentrated on how Cesare Borgia enlarged his land-holding

in Italy depending on a mixture of skilled statesmanship and cruelty12

Machiavelli won the honour of establishing and commanding the militia of Florence

He got benefit of his occupation in the republic government in addition to the personal

effect he had on Soderini to adopt the idea of forming a citizen militia In 1505

Machiavelli received the chance that he was looking for when the mercenaries employed

by the city in the interminable assault on Pisa raised a serious mutiny The commands of

ten companies did not agree to go on fighting Machiavellis attitude towards this

treachery was an elaborated plan for the aim of substituting the mercenaries by founding

citizen militia His desire was achieved in 1506 when the government supported the idea

of reviving the militia giving the agreement to recruit ten thousands men and to provide

them with arms uniforms and pay13

43

Machiavelli always believed that the mercenaries would not be dependable to form

enough army for the task of defending the republic and that is why he was authorized to

recruit and drill Florentine soldiers in order to found the seed of a patriotic army In 1509

this army was in a position to retake the city of Pisa which was lost to the French by

Piero II This achievement represented the highpoint of Machiavellis military and

diplomatic post In The Prince he always emphasized the significance of having patriotic

army rather than depending on mercenaries14

In 1512 the Spanish forces invaded Italy and helped the Medici to overcome the

republic army and to dismantle the government The Medici a family which had

governed Florence during long periods returned to authority and as a result Machiavelli

was fired from his post and deported into a form of internal exile15

In 1513 Machiavelli was mistakenly accused of plotting against the Medici He was

arrested and tormented for several weeks After this occurrence although pardoned he

was obliged to retire from public life and that is what offered him the suitable climate and

the occasion to devote himself to literary pursuits A few days after they discharged him

on 18 March 1513 Machiavelli wrote the following lines to his friend Francesco Vettori

in Rome

As for turning my face toward Fortuna I should like to get this pleasure form these troubles of mine that I have borne them so straightforwardly that I am proud ofmyselffor it and consider myself more of a man than IbelievedI was And if these new masters of ours see fit not to leave me lying on the ground I shall be happy and believe that I shall act in such a way that they too will have reason to be proud of me And if they should not I shall get on as I did when I came here I was born in poverty and at an early age learned how to scrimp rather than to thrive16

Machiavelli wanted to inform his friend that he had faced the false responsibility of a

plot against the Medici He talked about his bravery of being patient to endure the pain

which was inflicted on him in order to extort an acknowledgment which would lead him

to execution He mentioned another painful case his dismissal from his occupation

44

Machiavelli was also providing significant report about himself and his style of dealing

with life He was telling his friend that very early on in his life he had accustomed

himself to look at men and life from the side of poverty exclusion and adversity17

After several attempts to gain the contentment of the Medici and as a result of the

help of his friends whom he did not stop his in insistence for interceding Machiavelli

began to come back to the favour of the ruling family In 1520 he was authorized by the

Cardinal Giulio de Medici to compose the History of Florence it was achieved in 1525

and proffered to the Cardinal who ascended the Papal throne as Clement VIII in Rome

There were forthcoming tasks from the Medici government but time did not aid

Machiavelli who could not achieve full participation as he died on 21 June 152718

According to David K Fray the Florentine again was able to remove the Medici out

of Florence and refounded the republic Machiavelli ran to regain the post that he had lost

several years ago but his hopes were in Vain They were frustrated because of the fame

that The Prince had established which had made thepeople of Florence think that

Machiavelli was like the Medici As a result he did not retake his occupation Months

later Machiavelli fell ill his health started to fail him and he died19

Machiavelli political books became widely famous in 1564 They were considered

dangerous and put on the Church index of officially forbidden books20 The

misrepresentation and misunderstanding of his works depicted them as almost diabolical

works The clergy were the most violent attackers of his writings The first great edition

of Machiavellis works was issued in 1782 It was a date from which his fame as the

founder of modern political sciences steadily increased21

In his writing with the assistance of his imagination Machiavelli was able to know

how to take advantage of the wide experience he had gained for the goal of converting it

into a new shape and that is what enabled Machiavelli to leave a great personal seal on

the history of political thought

He would always remembered be by the political leaders ofall hues and colours and the Lords of political philosophy would continue to hold him in high esteem World statement would never forget his

45

great goodly suggestions and advice on the art of governing a state22

32 Machiavelli the Major Works

Diplomacys loss was posteritys gain A miserable soul who continued to follow

political affairs with the painful longing of a spurned lover Machiavelli produced two

classics of political thoughthellip23 A small pamphlet called The Prince was Machiavellis

first writing while he was spending his enforced retirement It was ultimately the one

most often associated with Machiavellis name to be studied with details separately The

Discourses on the Ten Books of Titus Livy henceforth The Discourses was

Machiavellis another major contribution to political philosophy It was an explanation of

the precepts of republican rule edited as a formula of a series of comments on the works

of the well-known historian of the Roman Republic Unlike The Prince The Discourses

took a long period of time to be written completely Machiavelli almost commenced to

write The Discourses in 1514 and finished writing in 1519 It was published

posthumously in 153124

Some writers claimed that The Prince and The Discourses were inconsistent with

each other in treating the subject of government This idea according to George H

Sabine is not acceptable putting in the consideration the circumstances in which The

Prince was written Both books present aspects of the same subject_the causes of the

rise and decline of states and the means by which statesmen can make them permanentrdquo

These two books showed specific features that caused Machiavellis fame the use of

unethical means for achieving political aims and the belief that government should

mainly depend on force and craft25

The Discourses supplied good guidance to those who tried to found or repair a

republic a form of government based on popular consent and control It was three

books in one Book I shed light on the inner constitution of the republic Book II tackled

the affairs of war Book III was to a large extent like the tenets of The Prince in dealing

with individual leadership26 In The Discourses Machiavelli concentrated on the

46

principles that kept the state away from corruption He shed special light on the religious

rites as a key element in controlling the society27 In this respect he said

Those princes and those republics which desire toremainfree from corruption should above all else maintainincorrupt the ceremonies of their religion andshould hold them always in veneration for there can be no surer indication of the decline of a country than to see divine worship neglected28

The Discourses was dedicated to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai two

of the greatest exponents of the Orti Oricellari in Florence where aristocratic young

people met in order to discuss politics art and literature29

Machiavellis other important contributions was a military treatise under the title The

Art of War Unlike The Prince and The Discourses it was the only book that was

published during Machiavellis life time30 The Art of War was divided into a preface and

seven books which arranged as series of dialogues that took place in Orti Oricellari It

was a dialogue in the humanist tradition of imitating classical forms31

The purpose of this book was mentioned by Fabrizio within the opening pages when

he stated

To honor and reward virtue not to have contempt forpoverty to esteem the modes and orders of military discipline to constrain citizens to love one another to live without factions to esteem less the private than the public good and other such things which could easily be added in these times32

321 The Prince an Introduction

The Prince was the first of Machiavellis major writings from his period of enforced

retirement during which he stayed in his farmhouse in Santrsquo Adrea in Percussina a few

miles south of Florence33 Machiavelli wrote this treatise with the aim of convincing the

dedicatee of the book that he knew well the art of the state even if he had served the

republic and his knowledge of this art was better than the Humanist rhetoricians and

the contemporary practitioneers34 The Prince was the child of Machiavellis whim a

47

pamphlet which is to bear the title The Prince and then sets out to dedicate it to one of

the men in power a prince who-the author fervently hopes-will repay him in princely

fashion with silver and situation35 Bertrand Russel supported this idea saying that ldquoThe

Prince was designed to please the Medici and that when it was written a Medici had

just become Pope (Leo x)36

Peter Bondanella did not agree with the idea that Machiavelli wrote this pamphlet in

order to please the Medici for the sake of getting an occupation in the new government

that the Medici had founded in Florence or in Rome under the protection of the Medici

Pope Leo x The fixed fact according to Bondanella is that Machiavelli tried to get a

position from this family but he did not compose his little treatise for the goal of

obtaining the favour of the Medici His hope was to be offered a new employment in

recognition of his unquestionable abilities in the art as a merit for his qualifications and

impeccable honesty but not as a reward for cajolery Bondanellas witness to support his

idea was the following extract taken from the famous letter that Machiavelli sent to his

friend Francesco Vettori on 10 December 151337

Then again I am anxious for the House of Medici tobegin using me at some negotiation or other if they are ever to begin If I should not succeed in winning them afterwards I would always be sorry I had not given them the book Then again if they were to read it they would see that I was not sleeping or idling all those fifteen years that I devoted to statecraft Anybody it seems to me should be glad to have the services of a man who has acquired so much experience at the expense of other employers Of my trustworthiness there could be no doubt Having so long kept faith with people I would not be likely to begin betraying now A man who has kept his word loyally for forty-three years as I have could not change his nature very easily The fact that I am a poor man is proof of my loyalty and honour38

But the last three lines of Machiavellis dedication to Lorenzo de Medici can be

interpreted as an attempt to win Medici favour It would be better for Machiavelli not to

write these lines They embrace a lot of exploring and that is what reflected a bad effect

on the great value of the previous speech At the end of the dedication Machiavelli said

48

If Your Magnificence will at some time turn your eyes from the summit of your high

position toward these low places you will realize to what degree I unjustly suffer a great

and continuous malignity of fortune(The Prince p 6)

The Prince is undoubtedly a distinguished landmark in the history of political

philosophy It is

A skilful artifice in statecraft a mighty manual in the art of Government and governing a pole-star to guide the sailing ship of rulers princes princedoms and political leaders at the helm of state-affairs state administration and its management It is an exploration into the very genesis origin of the formation and acquisition of a Government hellip a guidelines for rulers kings and princes hereditary princedoms and other forms of Governments newly formed and acquired It is a recipe for all the ills that inflict the states and the statesmen kings and kingdoms a golden-touch to transmute the functioning of a Government safe and secure a panacea for the ailments of a state its citizens and the subjects39

Machiavelli never based any political discussion on Christian or biblical ground

Depending on historical examples The Prince was a political treatise that offered

advices disregarding all moral and ethical values It was the first book to divorce

statecraft from the ethics and that is why it could be seen as unique In The Prince

Machiavelli did not tell what typical prince or principality was but he illustrated by

examples the successful princes in getting and maintaining power All of his examples

were driven from his personal observations written during his occupation as a diplomat

for Florence and his deep reading of ancient history40

Although The Prince was a short book it was the most remembered of

Machiavellies writings The unscrupulous methods Machiavelli used to suggest his

prince was the direct cause that made his name synonym to a nefarious political

conspiracy bringing the term Machiavellian to be used widely as a disdainful term

Such a rulers first duty Machiavelli argued was to do anything it took to secure and

maintain power even if that meant overriding customary moral convention41 It means

all the means could be used for the aim of founding and preserving the power The worst

49

and the treasonable deeds of the governor were justified The aims of the prince should be

consented in spite of the use of immoral means for the sake of achieving these aims and

that is what represents the main theme of this political treatise It is of course the end

justifies the means

In England Machiavellis book was forbidden by the Tudor politicians Its practical

cornerstone creeds were interpreted negatively and reductively It was one of the reasons

that help in emerging Old Nick an English term which indicated a link between

Machiavelli and the Satan42

322 The Price a Summery

Concentrating on the most important points in this book with quotations the

summery will go forward chapter by chapter The Prince consisted of twenty-six

chapters in addition to the dedication It was originally written to be presented to

Giuliano de Medici who may well esteem this treatise After Giulianos death

Machiavelli changed the dedication to Lorenzo de Medici who almost did not read it43

The dedication could be seen as a letter in which Machiavelli qualified his book as a

summery of his knowledge of the deeds of great men that came as a result of a long

experience in modern matters and constant study of the history of the Old Ages This

letter was skillfully employed by Machiavelli to draw attention to his own actions and

good services44 Machiavelli wanted to say that he knew the art of the state better than

anyone else and that his expertise was safer than the traditional wisdom that had inspired

Medicean rule since the days of Cosimo45 About this Machiavelli said

I have not found among my belongings anything that I might value more or prize so much as the knowledge of the deeds of great men that I have learned from a long experience in modern affairs and a continuous study of antiquity Having with great care and for a long time thought about and examined these deedshellip(The Prince P 5)

50

I

How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are and the Ways They Are

Acquired

In this chapter Machiavelli mentioned that the states were of two types republics

and principalities Then he explained that the principalities were either hereditary or new

The new principalities were completely new as was Milan for Francesco Sforzardquo or

similar to an addition added to an old state like the kingdom of Naples for the king of

Spain (The Prince P 7)

II

Of Hereditary Principalities

Machiavelli stated that the hereditary emirate could be governed easier than the new

one because of two reasons The first was that the people in the hereditary emirate were

familiar with their prince and his family the good prince needed no more than track the

paces of the preceding princes The second was that the people loved their prince and his

family unless he committed fatal mistakes that hurt them(The Prince pp 7-8)

III

Of Mixed Principalities

Machiavelli concentrated on the ways used by the Romans to govern the acquired

territories He said

In the regions they conquered the Romans followedthese rules very carefully They sent out colonies had dealings with the less powerful without increasing their strength put down the powerful and did not allow powerful foreigners to gain prestige there(The Prince P12)

Machiavelli supported the princes who wished to acquire more provinces describing

this wish as an ordinary thing The princes who were able to achieve this task should not

51

be blamed Those who were not able to do so and constantly tried even if they badly

affected their emirates should be condemned (The Prince P14)

He advised the prince not to avoid the necessary war saying that one should never

allow disorder to persist in order to avoid going to war because one does not avoid a war

but instead defers it to your disadvantage (The Prince P15)

At the end of this chapter Machiavelli inferred an important rule which according to

him rarely failed He believed that anyone who helped another to be powerful came to

destroy himself ldquobecause that power has been brought about by either through cunning or

by force and both of these two qualities are suspect to the one who has become

powerfulrdquo (The Prince P 15-16) In regard to this rule it seemed that Machiavelli had

read the line of poetry uttered by the Arabic poet Man Bin Aus Al Muzni who belonged

to the pre-Islamic period

46 أعلمھ الرمایة كل یوم ولما إستد ساعده رماني

In this line the poet addressed someone saying I teach him everyday how to fling the

javelin but when he learnt flinging accurately the first to be killed was me

IV

Why the Kingdom of Darius Occupied by Alexander Did Not Rebel Against His

Successors After the Death of Alexander

In this chapter Machiavelli defined two ways to govern all types of emirates The

first was to be governed by the prince with the assistance of his servants who used to

help as ministers to rule the principalities The second was that the kingdom could be

governed by the prince and barons who occupied this status as a result of the antiquity

of their bloodline (The Prince P16) In such cases the barons had to have their own

dominations and subjects

In many cases the victorious depended on his lords Machiavelli gave 16th century

France as an instance to explain this case These principalities were easy to occupy but

difficult to take hold of When the people of the kingdom supported their governor it

52

would be difficult to take hold of This case could be solved by removing the old

bloodline of the prince Machiavelli gave the example of the Persian empire of Darius III

attacked by Alexander the Great to explain this case

V

How Cities or Principalities Should be Governed That Lived by Their Own Laws

before They Were Occupied

Machiavelli explained how to rule the occupied states which were habitual to

manage their affairs according to their own laws He limited three ways The first was to

destroy the old state and to found a new one The second was that the victor had to live in

the occupied state The third was to let the state to go on according to its own laws under

the condition of paying tax yearly The victor had to leave a group of his followers in

order to keep his authority and to explain to the people the importance of their need for

the victor to protect and support them It was insured to keep the state But the strongest

way to govern the occupied state was to destroy this state completely (The Prince

PP19-20)

VI

Of New Principalities Acquired by Ones Own Troops and Virtue

Machiavelli maintained that reforming an existing order represented the most

serious and difficult things that they could do for the reason that the people were

naturally against the change He emphasized that such a task needed consideration of the

greatest example of virtue in history Machiavelli wanted to say that having qualities of

virtue was a key element if a prince wished to keep his principality Quentin Skinner

commented saying that the possession of virtursquo is likewise said to be crucial to the yet

higher end of achieving princely glory47

Concerning this case Machiavelli named examples of those who became princes by

their virtue but not fortune He mentioned Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and others

of their kind (The Prince P21) Any review of their achievements and their lives could

53

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

permanent officials who administered the republics internal and external affairs carrying

out policies which had been determined by the citys magistrates and councilsrdquo9

Machiavelli used to help the political faction that disposed Girolamo Savonarola the

dominant religious and political figure of Florence In the same year of Savonaralas

execution Machiavelli was appointed as the head of Second Chancery of the Republic In

his position as a Chancellor and Secretary to the Ten of Liberty and Peace a sensitive

government agency dealing chiefly with warfare and foreign affairrs Machiavelli

played an important role in both local politics and diplomatic missions as a diplomat in

foreign countries10 In his occupation Machiavelli was depending on the help of a group

of assistants like Andrea di Romolo Agostino Vespucci and Biagio Bounaccorsi He

trusted them as faithful friends During the period from 1499 to 1512 Maciavelli got the

chance to meet the prominent leaders of that time such as the King of France Louis XII

the Pope Julius II the Emperor Maximilian I and the Duke of Valentino Cesare Borgia

Machiavelli visited many Italian courts in addition to France and the Tyrol His

occupations helped him to obtain new discernments into real political situations and to

know directly the minds the ambitions the vices and the (few) virtues of the political

leaders who were shaping the destiny of Italy and Europe11

In 1502-3 Machiavelli concentrated on how Cesare Borgia enlarged his land-holding

in Italy depending on a mixture of skilled statesmanship and cruelty12

Machiavelli won the honour of establishing and commanding the militia of Florence

He got benefit of his occupation in the republic government in addition to the personal

effect he had on Soderini to adopt the idea of forming a citizen militia In 1505

Machiavelli received the chance that he was looking for when the mercenaries employed

by the city in the interminable assault on Pisa raised a serious mutiny The commands of

ten companies did not agree to go on fighting Machiavellis attitude towards this

treachery was an elaborated plan for the aim of substituting the mercenaries by founding

citizen militia His desire was achieved in 1506 when the government supported the idea

of reviving the militia giving the agreement to recruit ten thousands men and to provide

them with arms uniforms and pay13

43

Machiavelli always believed that the mercenaries would not be dependable to form

enough army for the task of defending the republic and that is why he was authorized to

recruit and drill Florentine soldiers in order to found the seed of a patriotic army In 1509

this army was in a position to retake the city of Pisa which was lost to the French by

Piero II This achievement represented the highpoint of Machiavellis military and

diplomatic post In The Prince he always emphasized the significance of having patriotic

army rather than depending on mercenaries14

In 1512 the Spanish forces invaded Italy and helped the Medici to overcome the

republic army and to dismantle the government The Medici a family which had

governed Florence during long periods returned to authority and as a result Machiavelli

was fired from his post and deported into a form of internal exile15

In 1513 Machiavelli was mistakenly accused of plotting against the Medici He was

arrested and tormented for several weeks After this occurrence although pardoned he

was obliged to retire from public life and that is what offered him the suitable climate and

the occasion to devote himself to literary pursuits A few days after they discharged him

on 18 March 1513 Machiavelli wrote the following lines to his friend Francesco Vettori

in Rome

As for turning my face toward Fortuna I should like to get this pleasure form these troubles of mine that I have borne them so straightforwardly that I am proud ofmyselffor it and consider myself more of a man than IbelievedI was And if these new masters of ours see fit not to leave me lying on the ground I shall be happy and believe that I shall act in such a way that they too will have reason to be proud of me And if they should not I shall get on as I did when I came here I was born in poverty and at an early age learned how to scrimp rather than to thrive16

Machiavelli wanted to inform his friend that he had faced the false responsibility of a

plot against the Medici He talked about his bravery of being patient to endure the pain

which was inflicted on him in order to extort an acknowledgment which would lead him

to execution He mentioned another painful case his dismissal from his occupation

44

Machiavelli was also providing significant report about himself and his style of dealing

with life He was telling his friend that very early on in his life he had accustomed

himself to look at men and life from the side of poverty exclusion and adversity17

After several attempts to gain the contentment of the Medici and as a result of the

help of his friends whom he did not stop his in insistence for interceding Machiavelli

began to come back to the favour of the ruling family In 1520 he was authorized by the

Cardinal Giulio de Medici to compose the History of Florence it was achieved in 1525

and proffered to the Cardinal who ascended the Papal throne as Clement VIII in Rome

There were forthcoming tasks from the Medici government but time did not aid

Machiavelli who could not achieve full participation as he died on 21 June 152718

According to David K Fray the Florentine again was able to remove the Medici out

of Florence and refounded the republic Machiavelli ran to regain the post that he had lost

several years ago but his hopes were in Vain They were frustrated because of the fame

that The Prince had established which had made thepeople of Florence think that

Machiavelli was like the Medici As a result he did not retake his occupation Months

later Machiavelli fell ill his health started to fail him and he died19

Machiavelli political books became widely famous in 1564 They were considered

dangerous and put on the Church index of officially forbidden books20 The

misrepresentation and misunderstanding of his works depicted them as almost diabolical

works The clergy were the most violent attackers of his writings The first great edition

of Machiavellis works was issued in 1782 It was a date from which his fame as the

founder of modern political sciences steadily increased21

In his writing with the assistance of his imagination Machiavelli was able to know

how to take advantage of the wide experience he had gained for the goal of converting it

into a new shape and that is what enabled Machiavelli to leave a great personal seal on

the history of political thought

He would always remembered be by the political leaders ofall hues and colours and the Lords of political philosophy would continue to hold him in high esteem World statement would never forget his

45

great goodly suggestions and advice on the art of governing a state22

32 Machiavelli the Major Works

Diplomacys loss was posteritys gain A miserable soul who continued to follow

political affairs with the painful longing of a spurned lover Machiavelli produced two

classics of political thoughthellip23 A small pamphlet called The Prince was Machiavellis

first writing while he was spending his enforced retirement It was ultimately the one

most often associated with Machiavellis name to be studied with details separately The

Discourses on the Ten Books of Titus Livy henceforth The Discourses was

Machiavellis another major contribution to political philosophy It was an explanation of

the precepts of republican rule edited as a formula of a series of comments on the works

of the well-known historian of the Roman Republic Unlike The Prince The Discourses

took a long period of time to be written completely Machiavelli almost commenced to

write The Discourses in 1514 and finished writing in 1519 It was published

posthumously in 153124

Some writers claimed that The Prince and The Discourses were inconsistent with

each other in treating the subject of government This idea according to George H

Sabine is not acceptable putting in the consideration the circumstances in which The

Prince was written Both books present aspects of the same subject_the causes of the

rise and decline of states and the means by which statesmen can make them permanentrdquo

These two books showed specific features that caused Machiavellis fame the use of

unethical means for achieving political aims and the belief that government should

mainly depend on force and craft25

The Discourses supplied good guidance to those who tried to found or repair a

republic a form of government based on popular consent and control It was three

books in one Book I shed light on the inner constitution of the republic Book II tackled

the affairs of war Book III was to a large extent like the tenets of The Prince in dealing

with individual leadership26 In The Discourses Machiavelli concentrated on the

46

principles that kept the state away from corruption He shed special light on the religious

rites as a key element in controlling the society27 In this respect he said

Those princes and those republics which desire toremainfree from corruption should above all else maintainincorrupt the ceremonies of their religion andshould hold them always in veneration for there can be no surer indication of the decline of a country than to see divine worship neglected28

The Discourses was dedicated to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai two

of the greatest exponents of the Orti Oricellari in Florence where aristocratic young

people met in order to discuss politics art and literature29

Machiavellis other important contributions was a military treatise under the title The

Art of War Unlike The Prince and The Discourses it was the only book that was

published during Machiavellis life time30 The Art of War was divided into a preface and

seven books which arranged as series of dialogues that took place in Orti Oricellari It

was a dialogue in the humanist tradition of imitating classical forms31

The purpose of this book was mentioned by Fabrizio within the opening pages when

he stated

To honor and reward virtue not to have contempt forpoverty to esteem the modes and orders of military discipline to constrain citizens to love one another to live without factions to esteem less the private than the public good and other such things which could easily be added in these times32

321 The Prince an Introduction

The Prince was the first of Machiavellis major writings from his period of enforced

retirement during which he stayed in his farmhouse in Santrsquo Adrea in Percussina a few

miles south of Florence33 Machiavelli wrote this treatise with the aim of convincing the

dedicatee of the book that he knew well the art of the state even if he had served the

republic and his knowledge of this art was better than the Humanist rhetoricians and

the contemporary practitioneers34 The Prince was the child of Machiavellis whim a

47

pamphlet which is to bear the title The Prince and then sets out to dedicate it to one of

the men in power a prince who-the author fervently hopes-will repay him in princely

fashion with silver and situation35 Bertrand Russel supported this idea saying that ldquoThe

Prince was designed to please the Medici and that when it was written a Medici had

just become Pope (Leo x)36

Peter Bondanella did not agree with the idea that Machiavelli wrote this pamphlet in

order to please the Medici for the sake of getting an occupation in the new government

that the Medici had founded in Florence or in Rome under the protection of the Medici

Pope Leo x The fixed fact according to Bondanella is that Machiavelli tried to get a

position from this family but he did not compose his little treatise for the goal of

obtaining the favour of the Medici His hope was to be offered a new employment in

recognition of his unquestionable abilities in the art as a merit for his qualifications and

impeccable honesty but not as a reward for cajolery Bondanellas witness to support his

idea was the following extract taken from the famous letter that Machiavelli sent to his

friend Francesco Vettori on 10 December 151337

Then again I am anxious for the House of Medici tobegin using me at some negotiation or other if they are ever to begin If I should not succeed in winning them afterwards I would always be sorry I had not given them the book Then again if they were to read it they would see that I was not sleeping or idling all those fifteen years that I devoted to statecraft Anybody it seems to me should be glad to have the services of a man who has acquired so much experience at the expense of other employers Of my trustworthiness there could be no doubt Having so long kept faith with people I would not be likely to begin betraying now A man who has kept his word loyally for forty-three years as I have could not change his nature very easily The fact that I am a poor man is proof of my loyalty and honour38

But the last three lines of Machiavellis dedication to Lorenzo de Medici can be

interpreted as an attempt to win Medici favour It would be better for Machiavelli not to

write these lines They embrace a lot of exploring and that is what reflected a bad effect

on the great value of the previous speech At the end of the dedication Machiavelli said

48

If Your Magnificence will at some time turn your eyes from the summit of your high

position toward these low places you will realize to what degree I unjustly suffer a great

and continuous malignity of fortune(The Prince p 6)

The Prince is undoubtedly a distinguished landmark in the history of political

philosophy It is

A skilful artifice in statecraft a mighty manual in the art of Government and governing a pole-star to guide the sailing ship of rulers princes princedoms and political leaders at the helm of state-affairs state administration and its management It is an exploration into the very genesis origin of the formation and acquisition of a Government hellip a guidelines for rulers kings and princes hereditary princedoms and other forms of Governments newly formed and acquired It is a recipe for all the ills that inflict the states and the statesmen kings and kingdoms a golden-touch to transmute the functioning of a Government safe and secure a panacea for the ailments of a state its citizens and the subjects39

Machiavelli never based any political discussion on Christian or biblical ground

Depending on historical examples The Prince was a political treatise that offered

advices disregarding all moral and ethical values It was the first book to divorce

statecraft from the ethics and that is why it could be seen as unique In The Prince

Machiavelli did not tell what typical prince or principality was but he illustrated by

examples the successful princes in getting and maintaining power All of his examples

were driven from his personal observations written during his occupation as a diplomat

for Florence and his deep reading of ancient history40

Although The Prince was a short book it was the most remembered of

Machiavellies writings The unscrupulous methods Machiavelli used to suggest his

prince was the direct cause that made his name synonym to a nefarious political

conspiracy bringing the term Machiavellian to be used widely as a disdainful term

Such a rulers first duty Machiavelli argued was to do anything it took to secure and

maintain power even if that meant overriding customary moral convention41 It means

all the means could be used for the aim of founding and preserving the power The worst

49

and the treasonable deeds of the governor were justified The aims of the prince should be

consented in spite of the use of immoral means for the sake of achieving these aims and

that is what represents the main theme of this political treatise It is of course the end

justifies the means

In England Machiavellis book was forbidden by the Tudor politicians Its practical

cornerstone creeds were interpreted negatively and reductively It was one of the reasons

that help in emerging Old Nick an English term which indicated a link between

Machiavelli and the Satan42

322 The Price a Summery

Concentrating on the most important points in this book with quotations the

summery will go forward chapter by chapter The Prince consisted of twenty-six

chapters in addition to the dedication It was originally written to be presented to

Giuliano de Medici who may well esteem this treatise After Giulianos death

Machiavelli changed the dedication to Lorenzo de Medici who almost did not read it43

The dedication could be seen as a letter in which Machiavelli qualified his book as a

summery of his knowledge of the deeds of great men that came as a result of a long

experience in modern matters and constant study of the history of the Old Ages This

letter was skillfully employed by Machiavelli to draw attention to his own actions and

good services44 Machiavelli wanted to say that he knew the art of the state better than

anyone else and that his expertise was safer than the traditional wisdom that had inspired

Medicean rule since the days of Cosimo45 About this Machiavelli said

I have not found among my belongings anything that I might value more or prize so much as the knowledge of the deeds of great men that I have learned from a long experience in modern affairs and a continuous study of antiquity Having with great care and for a long time thought about and examined these deedshellip(The Prince P 5)

50

I

How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are and the Ways They Are

Acquired

In this chapter Machiavelli mentioned that the states were of two types republics

and principalities Then he explained that the principalities were either hereditary or new

The new principalities were completely new as was Milan for Francesco Sforzardquo or

similar to an addition added to an old state like the kingdom of Naples for the king of

Spain (The Prince P 7)

II

Of Hereditary Principalities

Machiavelli stated that the hereditary emirate could be governed easier than the new

one because of two reasons The first was that the people in the hereditary emirate were

familiar with their prince and his family the good prince needed no more than track the

paces of the preceding princes The second was that the people loved their prince and his

family unless he committed fatal mistakes that hurt them(The Prince pp 7-8)

III

Of Mixed Principalities

Machiavelli concentrated on the ways used by the Romans to govern the acquired

territories He said

In the regions they conquered the Romans followedthese rules very carefully They sent out colonies had dealings with the less powerful without increasing their strength put down the powerful and did not allow powerful foreigners to gain prestige there(The Prince P12)

Machiavelli supported the princes who wished to acquire more provinces describing

this wish as an ordinary thing The princes who were able to achieve this task should not

51

be blamed Those who were not able to do so and constantly tried even if they badly

affected their emirates should be condemned (The Prince P14)

He advised the prince not to avoid the necessary war saying that one should never

allow disorder to persist in order to avoid going to war because one does not avoid a war

but instead defers it to your disadvantage (The Prince P15)

At the end of this chapter Machiavelli inferred an important rule which according to

him rarely failed He believed that anyone who helped another to be powerful came to

destroy himself ldquobecause that power has been brought about by either through cunning or

by force and both of these two qualities are suspect to the one who has become

powerfulrdquo (The Prince P 15-16) In regard to this rule it seemed that Machiavelli had

read the line of poetry uttered by the Arabic poet Man Bin Aus Al Muzni who belonged

to the pre-Islamic period

46 أعلمھ الرمایة كل یوم ولما إستد ساعده رماني

In this line the poet addressed someone saying I teach him everyday how to fling the

javelin but when he learnt flinging accurately the first to be killed was me

IV

Why the Kingdom of Darius Occupied by Alexander Did Not Rebel Against His

Successors After the Death of Alexander

In this chapter Machiavelli defined two ways to govern all types of emirates The

first was to be governed by the prince with the assistance of his servants who used to

help as ministers to rule the principalities The second was that the kingdom could be

governed by the prince and barons who occupied this status as a result of the antiquity

of their bloodline (The Prince P16) In such cases the barons had to have their own

dominations and subjects

In many cases the victorious depended on his lords Machiavelli gave 16th century

France as an instance to explain this case These principalities were easy to occupy but

difficult to take hold of When the people of the kingdom supported their governor it

52

would be difficult to take hold of This case could be solved by removing the old

bloodline of the prince Machiavelli gave the example of the Persian empire of Darius III

attacked by Alexander the Great to explain this case

V

How Cities or Principalities Should be Governed That Lived by Their Own Laws

before They Were Occupied

Machiavelli explained how to rule the occupied states which were habitual to

manage their affairs according to their own laws He limited three ways The first was to

destroy the old state and to found a new one The second was that the victor had to live in

the occupied state The third was to let the state to go on according to its own laws under

the condition of paying tax yearly The victor had to leave a group of his followers in

order to keep his authority and to explain to the people the importance of their need for

the victor to protect and support them It was insured to keep the state But the strongest

way to govern the occupied state was to destroy this state completely (The Prince

PP19-20)

VI

Of New Principalities Acquired by Ones Own Troops and Virtue

Machiavelli maintained that reforming an existing order represented the most

serious and difficult things that they could do for the reason that the people were

naturally against the change He emphasized that such a task needed consideration of the

greatest example of virtue in history Machiavelli wanted to say that having qualities of

virtue was a key element if a prince wished to keep his principality Quentin Skinner

commented saying that the possession of virtursquo is likewise said to be crucial to the yet

higher end of achieving princely glory47

Concerning this case Machiavelli named examples of those who became princes by

their virtue but not fortune He mentioned Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and others

of their kind (The Prince P21) Any review of their achievements and their lives could

53

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

Machiavelli always believed that the mercenaries would not be dependable to form

enough army for the task of defending the republic and that is why he was authorized to

recruit and drill Florentine soldiers in order to found the seed of a patriotic army In 1509

this army was in a position to retake the city of Pisa which was lost to the French by

Piero II This achievement represented the highpoint of Machiavellis military and

diplomatic post In The Prince he always emphasized the significance of having patriotic

army rather than depending on mercenaries14

In 1512 the Spanish forces invaded Italy and helped the Medici to overcome the

republic army and to dismantle the government The Medici a family which had

governed Florence during long periods returned to authority and as a result Machiavelli

was fired from his post and deported into a form of internal exile15

In 1513 Machiavelli was mistakenly accused of plotting against the Medici He was

arrested and tormented for several weeks After this occurrence although pardoned he

was obliged to retire from public life and that is what offered him the suitable climate and

the occasion to devote himself to literary pursuits A few days after they discharged him

on 18 March 1513 Machiavelli wrote the following lines to his friend Francesco Vettori

in Rome

As for turning my face toward Fortuna I should like to get this pleasure form these troubles of mine that I have borne them so straightforwardly that I am proud ofmyselffor it and consider myself more of a man than IbelievedI was And if these new masters of ours see fit not to leave me lying on the ground I shall be happy and believe that I shall act in such a way that they too will have reason to be proud of me And if they should not I shall get on as I did when I came here I was born in poverty and at an early age learned how to scrimp rather than to thrive16

Machiavelli wanted to inform his friend that he had faced the false responsibility of a

plot against the Medici He talked about his bravery of being patient to endure the pain

which was inflicted on him in order to extort an acknowledgment which would lead him

to execution He mentioned another painful case his dismissal from his occupation

44

Machiavelli was also providing significant report about himself and his style of dealing

with life He was telling his friend that very early on in his life he had accustomed

himself to look at men and life from the side of poverty exclusion and adversity17

After several attempts to gain the contentment of the Medici and as a result of the

help of his friends whom he did not stop his in insistence for interceding Machiavelli

began to come back to the favour of the ruling family In 1520 he was authorized by the

Cardinal Giulio de Medici to compose the History of Florence it was achieved in 1525

and proffered to the Cardinal who ascended the Papal throne as Clement VIII in Rome

There were forthcoming tasks from the Medici government but time did not aid

Machiavelli who could not achieve full participation as he died on 21 June 152718

According to David K Fray the Florentine again was able to remove the Medici out

of Florence and refounded the republic Machiavelli ran to regain the post that he had lost

several years ago but his hopes were in Vain They were frustrated because of the fame

that The Prince had established which had made thepeople of Florence think that

Machiavelli was like the Medici As a result he did not retake his occupation Months

later Machiavelli fell ill his health started to fail him and he died19

Machiavelli political books became widely famous in 1564 They were considered

dangerous and put on the Church index of officially forbidden books20 The

misrepresentation and misunderstanding of his works depicted them as almost diabolical

works The clergy were the most violent attackers of his writings The first great edition

of Machiavellis works was issued in 1782 It was a date from which his fame as the

founder of modern political sciences steadily increased21

In his writing with the assistance of his imagination Machiavelli was able to know

how to take advantage of the wide experience he had gained for the goal of converting it

into a new shape and that is what enabled Machiavelli to leave a great personal seal on

the history of political thought

He would always remembered be by the political leaders ofall hues and colours and the Lords of political philosophy would continue to hold him in high esteem World statement would never forget his

45

great goodly suggestions and advice on the art of governing a state22

32 Machiavelli the Major Works

Diplomacys loss was posteritys gain A miserable soul who continued to follow

political affairs with the painful longing of a spurned lover Machiavelli produced two

classics of political thoughthellip23 A small pamphlet called The Prince was Machiavellis

first writing while he was spending his enforced retirement It was ultimately the one

most often associated with Machiavellis name to be studied with details separately The

Discourses on the Ten Books of Titus Livy henceforth The Discourses was

Machiavellis another major contribution to political philosophy It was an explanation of

the precepts of republican rule edited as a formula of a series of comments on the works

of the well-known historian of the Roman Republic Unlike The Prince The Discourses

took a long period of time to be written completely Machiavelli almost commenced to

write The Discourses in 1514 and finished writing in 1519 It was published

posthumously in 153124

Some writers claimed that The Prince and The Discourses were inconsistent with

each other in treating the subject of government This idea according to George H

Sabine is not acceptable putting in the consideration the circumstances in which The

Prince was written Both books present aspects of the same subject_the causes of the

rise and decline of states and the means by which statesmen can make them permanentrdquo

These two books showed specific features that caused Machiavellis fame the use of

unethical means for achieving political aims and the belief that government should

mainly depend on force and craft25

The Discourses supplied good guidance to those who tried to found or repair a

republic a form of government based on popular consent and control It was three

books in one Book I shed light on the inner constitution of the republic Book II tackled

the affairs of war Book III was to a large extent like the tenets of The Prince in dealing

with individual leadership26 In The Discourses Machiavelli concentrated on the

46

principles that kept the state away from corruption He shed special light on the religious

rites as a key element in controlling the society27 In this respect he said

Those princes and those republics which desire toremainfree from corruption should above all else maintainincorrupt the ceremonies of their religion andshould hold them always in veneration for there can be no surer indication of the decline of a country than to see divine worship neglected28

The Discourses was dedicated to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai two

of the greatest exponents of the Orti Oricellari in Florence where aristocratic young

people met in order to discuss politics art and literature29

Machiavellis other important contributions was a military treatise under the title The

Art of War Unlike The Prince and The Discourses it was the only book that was

published during Machiavellis life time30 The Art of War was divided into a preface and

seven books which arranged as series of dialogues that took place in Orti Oricellari It

was a dialogue in the humanist tradition of imitating classical forms31

The purpose of this book was mentioned by Fabrizio within the opening pages when

he stated

To honor and reward virtue not to have contempt forpoverty to esteem the modes and orders of military discipline to constrain citizens to love one another to live without factions to esteem less the private than the public good and other such things which could easily be added in these times32

321 The Prince an Introduction

The Prince was the first of Machiavellis major writings from his period of enforced

retirement during which he stayed in his farmhouse in Santrsquo Adrea in Percussina a few

miles south of Florence33 Machiavelli wrote this treatise with the aim of convincing the

dedicatee of the book that he knew well the art of the state even if he had served the

republic and his knowledge of this art was better than the Humanist rhetoricians and

the contemporary practitioneers34 The Prince was the child of Machiavellis whim a

47

pamphlet which is to bear the title The Prince and then sets out to dedicate it to one of

the men in power a prince who-the author fervently hopes-will repay him in princely

fashion with silver and situation35 Bertrand Russel supported this idea saying that ldquoThe

Prince was designed to please the Medici and that when it was written a Medici had

just become Pope (Leo x)36

Peter Bondanella did not agree with the idea that Machiavelli wrote this pamphlet in

order to please the Medici for the sake of getting an occupation in the new government

that the Medici had founded in Florence or in Rome under the protection of the Medici

Pope Leo x The fixed fact according to Bondanella is that Machiavelli tried to get a

position from this family but he did not compose his little treatise for the goal of

obtaining the favour of the Medici His hope was to be offered a new employment in

recognition of his unquestionable abilities in the art as a merit for his qualifications and

impeccable honesty but not as a reward for cajolery Bondanellas witness to support his

idea was the following extract taken from the famous letter that Machiavelli sent to his

friend Francesco Vettori on 10 December 151337

Then again I am anxious for the House of Medici tobegin using me at some negotiation or other if they are ever to begin If I should not succeed in winning them afterwards I would always be sorry I had not given them the book Then again if they were to read it they would see that I was not sleeping or idling all those fifteen years that I devoted to statecraft Anybody it seems to me should be glad to have the services of a man who has acquired so much experience at the expense of other employers Of my trustworthiness there could be no doubt Having so long kept faith with people I would not be likely to begin betraying now A man who has kept his word loyally for forty-three years as I have could not change his nature very easily The fact that I am a poor man is proof of my loyalty and honour38

But the last three lines of Machiavellis dedication to Lorenzo de Medici can be

interpreted as an attempt to win Medici favour It would be better for Machiavelli not to

write these lines They embrace a lot of exploring and that is what reflected a bad effect

on the great value of the previous speech At the end of the dedication Machiavelli said

48

If Your Magnificence will at some time turn your eyes from the summit of your high

position toward these low places you will realize to what degree I unjustly suffer a great

and continuous malignity of fortune(The Prince p 6)

The Prince is undoubtedly a distinguished landmark in the history of political

philosophy It is

A skilful artifice in statecraft a mighty manual in the art of Government and governing a pole-star to guide the sailing ship of rulers princes princedoms and political leaders at the helm of state-affairs state administration and its management It is an exploration into the very genesis origin of the formation and acquisition of a Government hellip a guidelines for rulers kings and princes hereditary princedoms and other forms of Governments newly formed and acquired It is a recipe for all the ills that inflict the states and the statesmen kings and kingdoms a golden-touch to transmute the functioning of a Government safe and secure a panacea for the ailments of a state its citizens and the subjects39

Machiavelli never based any political discussion on Christian or biblical ground

Depending on historical examples The Prince was a political treatise that offered

advices disregarding all moral and ethical values It was the first book to divorce

statecraft from the ethics and that is why it could be seen as unique In The Prince

Machiavelli did not tell what typical prince or principality was but he illustrated by

examples the successful princes in getting and maintaining power All of his examples

were driven from his personal observations written during his occupation as a diplomat

for Florence and his deep reading of ancient history40

Although The Prince was a short book it was the most remembered of

Machiavellies writings The unscrupulous methods Machiavelli used to suggest his

prince was the direct cause that made his name synonym to a nefarious political

conspiracy bringing the term Machiavellian to be used widely as a disdainful term

Such a rulers first duty Machiavelli argued was to do anything it took to secure and

maintain power even if that meant overriding customary moral convention41 It means

all the means could be used for the aim of founding and preserving the power The worst

49

and the treasonable deeds of the governor were justified The aims of the prince should be

consented in spite of the use of immoral means for the sake of achieving these aims and

that is what represents the main theme of this political treatise It is of course the end

justifies the means

In England Machiavellis book was forbidden by the Tudor politicians Its practical

cornerstone creeds were interpreted negatively and reductively It was one of the reasons

that help in emerging Old Nick an English term which indicated a link between

Machiavelli and the Satan42

322 The Price a Summery

Concentrating on the most important points in this book with quotations the

summery will go forward chapter by chapter The Prince consisted of twenty-six

chapters in addition to the dedication It was originally written to be presented to

Giuliano de Medici who may well esteem this treatise After Giulianos death

Machiavelli changed the dedication to Lorenzo de Medici who almost did not read it43

The dedication could be seen as a letter in which Machiavelli qualified his book as a

summery of his knowledge of the deeds of great men that came as a result of a long

experience in modern matters and constant study of the history of the Old Ages This

letter was skillfully employed by Machiavelli to draw attention to his own actions and

good services44 Machiavelli wanted to say that he knew the art of the state better than

anyone else and that his expertise was safer than the traditional wisdom that had inspired

Medicean rule since the days of Cosimo45 About this Machiavelli said

I have not found among my belongings anything that I might value more or prize so much as the knowledge of the deeds of great men that I have learned from a long experience in modern affairs and a continuous study of antiquity Having with great care and for a long time thought about and examined these deedshellip(The Prince P 5)

50

I

How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are and the Ways They Are

Acquired

In this chapter Machiavelli mentioned that the states were of two types republics

and principalities Then he explained that the principalities were either hereditary or new

The new principalities were completely new as was Milan for Francesco Sforzardquo or

similar to an addition added to an old state like the kingdom of Naples for the king of

Spain (The Prince P 7)

II

Of Hereditary Principalities

Machiavelli stated that the hereditary emirate could be governed easier than the new

one because of two reasons The first was that the people in the hereditary emirate were

familiar with their prince and his family the good prince needed no more than track the

paces of the preceding princes The second was that the people loved their prince and his

family unless he committed fatal mistakes that hurt them(The Prince pp 7-8)

III

Of Mixed Principalities

Machiavelli concentrated on the ways used by the Romans to govern the acquired

territories He said

In the regions they conquered the Romans followedthese rules very carefully They sent out colonies had dealings with the less powerful without increasing their strength put down the powerful and did not allow powerful foreigners to gain prestige there(The Prince P12)

Machiavelli supported the princes who wished to acquire more provinces describing

this wish as an ordinary thing The princes who were able to achieve this task should not

51

be blamed Those who were not able to do so and constantly tried even if they badly

affected their emirates should be condemned (The Prince P14)

He advised the prince not to avoid the necessary war saying that one should never

allow disorder to persist in order to avoid going to war because one does not avoid a war

but instead defers it to your disadvantage (The Prince P15)

At the end of this chapter Machiavelli inferred an important rule which according to

him rarely failed He believed that anyone who helped another to be powerful came to

destroy himself ldquobecause that power has been brought about by either through cunning or

by force and both of these two qualities are suspect to the one who has become

powerfulrdquo (The Prince P 15-16) In regard to this rule it seemed that Machiavelli had

read the line of poetry uttered by the Arabic poet Man Bin Aus Al Muzni who belonged

to the pre-Islamic period

46 أعلمھ الرمایة كل یوم ولما إستد ساعده رماني

In this line the poet addressed someone saying I teach him everyday how to fling the

javelin but when he learnt flinging accurately the first to be killed was me

IV

Why the Kingdom of Darius Occupied by Alexander Did Not Rebel Against His

Successors After the Death of Alexander

In this chapter Machiavelli defined two ways to govern all types of emirates The

first was to be governed by the prince with the assistance of his servants who used to

help as ministers to rule the principalities The second was that the kingdom could be

governed by the prince and barons who occupied this status as a result of the antiquity

of their bloodline (The Prince P16) In such cases the barons had to have their own

dominations and subjects

In many cases the victorious depended on his lords Machiavelli gave 16th century

France as an instance to explain this case These principalities were easy to occupy but

difficult to take hold of When the people of the kingdom supported their governor it

52

would be difficult to take hold of This case could be solved by removing the old

bloodline of the prince Machiavelli gave the example of the Persian empire of Darius III

attacked by Alexander the Great to explain this case

V

How Cities or Principalities Should be Governed That Lived by Their Own Laws

before They Were Occupied

Machiavelli explained how to rule the occupied states which were habitual to

manage their affairs according to their own laws He limited three ways The first was to

destroy the old state and to found a new one The second was that the victor had to live in

the occupied state The third was to let the state to go on according to its own laws under

the condition of paying tax yearly The victor had to leave a group of his followers in

order to keep his authority and to explain to the people the importance of their need for

the victor to protect and support them It was insured to keep the state But the strongest

way to govern the occupied state was to destroy this state completely (The Prince

PP19-20)

VI

Of New Principalities Acquired by Ones Own Troops and Virtue

Machiavelli maintained that reforming an existing order represented the most

serious and difficult things that they could do for the reason that the people were

naturally against the change He emphasized that such a task needed consideration of the

greatest example of virtue in history Machiavelli wanted to say that having qualities of

virtue was a key element if a prince wished to keep his principality Quentin Skinner

commented saying that the possession of virtursquo is likewise said to be crucial to the yet

higher end of achieving princely glory47

Concerning this case Machiavelli named examples of those who became princes by

their virtue but not fortune He mentioned Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and others

of their kind (The Prince P21) Any review of their achievements and their lives could

53

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

Machiavelli was also providing significant report about himself and his style of dealing

with life He was telling his friend that very early on in his life he had accustomed

himself to look at men and life from the side of poverty exclusion and adversity17

After several attempts to gain the contentment of the Medici and as a result of the

help of his friends whom he did not stop his in insistence for interceding Machiavelli

began to come back to the favour of the ruling family In 1520 he was authorized by the

Cardinal Giulio de Medici to compose the History of Florence it was achieved in 1525

and proffered to the Cardinal who ascended the Papal throne as Clement VIII in Rome

There were forthcoming tasks from the Medici government but time did not aid

Machiavelli who could not achieve full participation as he died on 21 June 152718

According to David K Fray the Florentine again was able to remove the Medici out

of Florence and refounded the republic Machiavelli ran to regain the post that he had lost

several years ago but his hopes were in Vain They were frustrated because of the fame

that The Prince had established which had made thepeople of Florence think that

Machiavelli was like the Medici As a result he did not retake his occupation Months

later Machiavelli fell ill his health started to fail him and he died19

Machiavelli political books became widely famous in 1564 They were considered

dangerous and put on the Church index of officially forbidden books20 The

misrepresentation and misunderstanding of his works depicted them as almost diabolical

works The clergy were the most violent attackers of his writings The first great edition

of Machiavellis works was issued in 1782 It was a date from which his fame as the

founder of modern political sciences steadily increased21

In his writing with the assistance of his imagination Machiavelli was able to know

how to take advantage of the wide experience he had gained for the goal of converting it

into a new shape and that is what enabled Machiavelli to leave a great personal seal on

the history of political thought

He would always remembered be by the political leaders ofall hues and colours and the Lords of political philosophy would continue to hold him in high esteem World statement would never forget his

45

great goodly suggestions and advice on the art of governing a state22

32 Machiavelli the Major Works

Diplomacys loss was posteritys gain A miserable soul who continued to follow

political affairs with the painful longing of a spurned lover Machiavelli produced two

classics of political thoughthellip23 A small pamphlet called The Prince was Machiavellis

first writing while he was spending his enforced retirement It was ultimately the one

most often associated with Machiavellis name to be studied with details separately The

Discourses on the Ten Books of Titus Livy henceforth The Discourses was

Machiavellis another major contribution to political philosophy It was an explanation of

the precepts of republican rule edited as a formula of a series of comments on the works

of the well-known historian of the Roman Republic Unlike The Prince The Discourses

took a long period of time to be written completely Machiavelli almost commenced to

write The Discourses in 1514 and finished writing in 1519 It was published

posthumously in 153124

Some writers claimed that The Prince and The Discourses were inconsistent with

each other in treating the subject of government This idea according to George H

Sabine is not acceptable putting in the consideration the circumstances in which The

Prince was written Both books present aspects of the same subject_the causes of the

rise and decline of states and the means by which statesmen can make them permanentrdquo

These two books showed specific features that caused Machiavellis fame the use of

unethical means for achieving political aims and the belief that government should

mainly depend on force and craft25

The Discourses supplied good guidance to those who tried to found or repair a

republic a form of government based on popular consent and control It was three

books in one Book I shed light on the inner constitution of the republic Book II tackled

the affairs of war Book III was to a large extent like the tenets of The Prince in dealing

with individual leadership26 In The Discourses Machiavelli concentrated on the

46

principles that kept the state away from corruption He shed special light on the religious

rites as a key element in controlling the society27 In this respect he said

Those princes and those republics which desire toremainfree from corruption should above all else maintainincorrupt the ceremonies of their religion andshould hold them always in veneration for there can be no surer indication of the decline of a country than to see divine worship neglected28

The Discourses was dedicated to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai two

of the greatest exponents of the Orti Oricellari in Florence where aristocratic young

people met in order to discuss politics art and literature29

Machiavellis other important contributions was a military treatise under the title The

Art of War Unlike The Prince and The Discourses it was the only book that was

published during Machiavellis life time30 The Art of War was divided into a preface and

seven books which arranged as series of dialogues that took place in Orti Oricellari It

was a dialogue in the humanist tradition of imitating classical forms31

The purpose of this book was mentioned by Fabrizio within the opening pages when

he stated

To honor and reward virtue not to have contempt forpoverty to esteem the modes and orders of military discipline to constrain citizens to love one another to live without factions to esteem less the private than the public good and other such things which could easily be added in these times32

321 The Prince an Introduction

The Prince was the first of Machiavellis major writings from his period of enforced

retirement during which he stayed in his farmhouse in Santrsquo Adrea in Percussina a few

miles south of Florence33 Machiavelli wrote this treatise with the aim of convincing the

dedicatee of the book that he knew well the art of the state even if he had served the

republic and his knowledge of this art was better than the Humanist rhetoricians and

the contemporary practitioneers34 The Prince was the child of Machiavellis whim a

47

pamphlet which is to bear the title The Prince and then sets out to dedicate it to one of

the men in power a prince who-the author fervently hopes-will repay him in princely

fashion with silver and situation35 Bertrand Russel supported this idea saying that ldquoThe

Prince was designed to please the Medici and that when it was written a Medici had

just become Pope (Leo x)36

Peter Bondanella did not agree with the idea that Machiavelli wrote this pamphlet in

order to please the Medici for the sake of getting an occupation in the new government

that the Medici had founded in Florence or in Rome under the protection of the Medici

Pope Leo x The fixed fact according to Bondanella is that Machiavelli tried to get a

position from this family but he did not compose his little treatise for the goal of

obtaining the favour of the Medici His hope was to be offered a new employment in

recognition of his unquestionable abilities in the art as a merit for his qualifications and

impeccable honesty but not as a reward for cajolery Bondanellas witness to support his

idea was the following extract taken from the famous letter that Machiavelli sent to his

friend Francesco Vettori on 10 December 151337

Then again I am anxious for the House of Medici tobegin using me at some negotiation or other if they are ever to begin If I should not succeed in winning them afterwards I would always be sorry I had not given them the book Then again if they were to read it they would see that I was not sleeping or idling all those fifteen years that I devoted to statecraft Anybody it seems to me should be glad to have the services of a man who has acquired so much experience at the expense of other employers Of my trustworthiness there could be no doubt Having so long kept faith with people I would not be likely to begin betraying now A man who has kept his word loyally for forty-three years as I have could not change his nature very easily The fact that I am a poor man is proof of my loyalty and honour38

But the last three lines of Machiavellis dedication to Lorenzo de Medici can be

interpreted as an attempt to win Medici favour It would be better for Machiavelli not to

write these lines They embrace a lot of exploring and that is what reflected a bad effect

on the great value of the previous speech At the end of the dedication Machiavelli said

48

If Your Magnificence will at some time turn your eyes from the summit of your high

position toward these low places you will realize to what degree I unjustly suffer a great

and continuous malignity of fortune(The Prince p 6)

The Prince is undoubtedly a distinguished landmark in the history of political

philosophy It is

A skilful artifice in statecraft a mighty manual in the art of Government and governing a pole-star to guide the sailing ship of rulers princes princedoms and political leaders at the helm of state-affairs state administration and its management It is an exploration into the very genesis origin of the formation and acquisition of a Government hellip a guidelines for rulers kings and princes hereditary princedoms and other forms of Governments newly formed and acquired It is a recipe for all the ills that inflict the states and the statesmen kings and kingdoms a golden-touch to transmute the functioning of a Government safe and secure a panacea for the ailments of a state its citizens and the subjects39

Machiavelli never based any political discussion on Christian or biblical ground

Depending on historical examples The Prince was a political treatise that offered

advices disregarding all moral and ethical values It was the first book to divorce

statecraft from the ethics and that is why it could be seen as unique In The Prince

Machiavelli did not tell what typical prince or principality was but he illustrated by

examples the successful princes in getting and maintaining power All of his examples

were driven from his personal observations written during his occupation as a diplomat

for Florence and his deep reading of ancient history40

Although The Prince was a short book it was the most remembered of

Machiavellies writings The unscrupulous methods Machiavelli used to suggest his

prince was the direct cause that made his name synonym to a nefarious political

conspiracy bringing the term Machiavellian to be used widely as a disdainful term

Such a rulers first duty Machiavelli argued was to do anything it took to secure and

maintain power even if that meant overriding customary moral convention41 It means

all the means could be used for the aim of founding and preserving the power The worst

49

and the treasonable deeds of the governor were justified The aims of the prince should be

consented in spite of the use of immoral means for the sake of achieving these aims and

that is what represents the main theme of this political treatise It is of course the end

justifies the means

In England Machiavellis book was forbidden by the Tudor politicians Its practical

cornerstone creeds were interpreted negatively and reductively It was one of the reasons

that help in emerging Old Nick an English term which indicated a link between

Machiavelli and the Satan42

322 The Price a Summery

Concentrating on the most important points in this book with quotations the

summery will go forward chapter by chapter The Prince consisted of twenty-six

chapters in addition to the dedication It was originally written to be presented to

Giuliano de Medici who may well esteem this treatise After Giulianos death

Machiavelli changed the dedication to Lorenzo de Medici who almost did not read it43

The dedication could be seen as a letter in which Machiavelli qualified his book as a

summery of his knowledge of the deeds of great men that came as a result of a long

experience in modern matters and constant study of the history of the Old Ages This

letter was skillfully employed by Machiavelli to draw attention to his own actions and

good services44 Machiavelli wanted to say that he knew the art of the state better than

anyone else and that his expertise was safer than the traditional wisdom that had inspired

Medicean rule since the days of Cosimo45 About this Machiavelli said

I have not found among my belongings anything that I might value more or prize so much as the knowledge of the deeds of great men that I have learned from a long experience in modern affairs and a continuous study of antiquity Having with great care and for a long time thought about and examined these deedshellip(The Prince P 5)

50

I

How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are and the Ways They Are

Acquired

In this chapter Machiavelli mentioned that the states were of two types republics

and principalities Then he explained that the principalities were either hereditary or new

The new principalities were completely new as was Milan for Francesco Sforzardquo or

similar to an addition added to an old state like the kingdom of Naples for the king of

Spain (The Prince P 7)

II

Of Hereditary Principalities

Machiavelli stated that the hereditary emirate could be governed easier than the new

one because of two reasons The first was that the people in the hereditary emirate were

familiar with their prince and his family the good prince needed no more than track the

paces of the preceding princes The second was that the people loved their prince and his

family unless he committed fatal mistakes that hurt them(The Prince pp 7-8)

III

Of Mixed Principalities

Machiavelli concentrated on the ways used by the Romans to govern the acquired

territories He said

In the regions they conquered the Romans followedthese rules very carefully They sent out colonies had dealings with the less powerful without increasing their strength put down the powerful and did not allow powerful foreigners to gain prestige there(The Prince P12)

Machiavelli supported the princes who wished to acquire more provinces describing

this wish as an ordinary thing The princes who were able to achieve this task should not

51

be blamed Those who were not able to do so and constantly tried even if they badly

affected their emirates should be condemned (The Prince P14)

He advised the prince not to avoid the necessary war saying that one should never

allow disorder to persist in order to avoid going to war because one does not avoid a war

but instead defers it to your disadvantage (The Prince P15)

At the end of this chapter Machiavelli inferred an important rule which according to

him rarely failed He believed that anyone who helped another to be powerful came to

destroy himself ldquobecause that power has been brought about by either through cunning or

by force and both of these two qualities are suspect to the one who has become

powerfulrdquo (The Prince P 15-16) In regard to this rule it seemed that Machiavelli had

read the line of poetry uttered by the Arabic poet Man Bin Aus Al Muzni who belonged

to the pre-Islamic period

46 أعلمھ الرمایة كل یوم ولما إستد ساعده رماني

In this line the poet addressed someone saying I teach him everyday how to fling the

javelin but when he learnt flinging accurately the first to be killed was me

IV

Why the Kingdom of Darius Occupied by Alexander Did Not Rebel Against His

Successors After the Death of Alexander

In this chapter Machiavelli defined two ways to govern all types of emirates The

first was to be governed by the prince with the assistance of his servants who used to

help as ministers to rule the principalities The second was that the kingdom could be

governed by the prince and barons who occupied this status as a result of the antiquity

of their bloodline (The Prince P16) In such cases the barons had to have their own

dominations and subjects

In many cases the victorious depended on his lords Machiavelli gave 16th century

France as an instance to explain this case These principalities were easy to occupy but

difficult to take hold of When the people of the kingdom supported their governor it

52

would be difficult to take hold of This case could be solved by removing the old

bloodline of the prince Machiavelli gave the example of the Persian empire of Darius III

attacked by Alexander the Great to explain this case

V

How Cities or Principalities Should be Governed That Lived by Their Own Laws

before They Were Occupied

Machiavelli explained how to rule the occupied states which were habitual to

manage their affairs according to their own laws He limited three ways The first was to

destroy the old state and to found a new one The second was that the victor had to live in

the occupied state The third was to let the state to go on according to its own laws under

the condition of paying tax yearly The victor had to leave a group of his followers in

order to keep his authority and to explain to the people the importance of their need for

the victor to protect and support them It was insured to keep the state But the strongest

way to govern the occupied state was to destroy this state completely (The Prince

PP19-20)

VI

Of New Principalities Acquired by Ones Own Troops and Virtue

Machiavelli maintained that reforming an existing order represented the most

serious and difficult things that they could do for the reason that the people were

naturally against the change He emphasized that such a task needed consideration of the

greatest example of virtue in history Machiavelli wanted to say that having qualities of

virtue was a key element if a prince wished to keep his principality Quentin Skinner

commented saying that the possession of virtursquo is likewise said to be crucial to the yet

higher end of achieving princely glory47

Concerning this case Machiavelli named examples of those who became princes by

their virtue but not fortune He mentioned Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and others

of their kind (The Prince P21) Any review of their achievements and their lives could

53

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

great goodly suggestions and advice on the art of governing a state22

32 Machiavelli the Major Works

Diplomacys loss was posteritys gain A miserable soul who continued to follow

political affairs with the painful longing of a spurned lover Machiavelli produced two

classics of political thoughthellip23 A small pamphlet called The Prince was Machiavellis

first writing while he was spending his enforced retirement It was ultimately the one

most often associated with Machiavellis name to be studied with details separately The

Discourses on the Ten Books of Titus Livy henceforth The Discourses was

Machiavellis another major contribution to political philosophy It was an explanation of

the precepts of republican rule edited as a formula of a series of comments on the works

of the well-known historian of the Roman Republic Unlike The Prince The Discourses

took a long period of time to be written completely Machiavelli almost commenced to

write The Discourses in 1514 and finished writing in 1519 It was published

posthumously in 153124

Some writers claimed that The Prince and The Discourses were inconsistent with

each other in treating the subject of government This idea according to George H

Sabine is not acceptable putting in the consideration the circumstances in which The

Prince was written Both books present aspects of the same subject_the causes of the

rise and decline of states and the means by which statesmen can make them permanentrdquo

These two books showed specific features that caused Machiavellis fame the use of

unethical means for achieving political aims and the belief that government should

mainly depend on force and craft25

The Discourses supplied good guidance to those who tried to found or repair a

republic a form of government based on popular consent and control It was three

books in one Book I shed light on the inner constitution of the republic Book II tackled

the affairs of war Book III was to a large extent like the tenets of The Prince in dealing

with individual leadership26 In The Discourses Machiavelli concentrated on the

46

principles that kept the state away from corruption He shed special light on the religious

rites as a key element in controlling the society27 In this respect he said

Those princes and those republics which desire toremainfree from corruption should above all else maintainincorrupt the ceremonies of their religion andshould hold them always in veneration for there can be no surer indication of the decline of a country than to see divine worship neglected28

The Discourses was dedicated to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai two

of the greatest exponents of the Orti Oricellari in Florence where aristocratic young

people met in order to discuss politics art and literature29

Machiavellis other important contributions was a military treatise under the title The

Art of War Unlike The Prince and The Discourses it was the only book that was

published during Machiavellis life time30 The Art of War was divided into a preface and

seven books which arranged as series of dialogues that took place in Orti Oricellari It

was a dialogue in the humanist tradition of imitating classical forms31

The purpose of this book was mentioned by Fabrizio within the opening pages when

he stated

To honor and reward virtue not to have contempt forpoverty to esteem the modes and orders of military discipline to constrain citizens to love one another to live without factions to esteem less the private than the public good and other such things which could easily be added in these times32

321 The Prince an Introduction

The Prince was the first of Machiavellis major writings from his period of enforced

retirement during which he stayed in his farmhouse in Santrsquo Adrea in Percussina a few

miles south of Florence33 Machiavelli wrote this treatise with the aim of convincing the

dedicatee of the book that he knew well the art of the state even if he had served the

republic and his knowledge of this art was better than the Humanist rhetoricians and

the contemporary practitioneers34 The Prince was the child of Machiavellis whim a

47

pamphlet which is to bear the title The Prince and then sets out to dedicate it to one of

the men in power a prince who-the author fervently hopes-will repay him in princely

fashion with silver and situation35 Bertrand Russel supported this idea saying that ldquoThe

Prince was designed to please the Medici and that when it was written a Medici had

just become Pope (Leo x)36

Peter Bondanella did not agree with the idea that Machiavelli wrote this pamphlet in

order to please the Medici for the sake of getting an occupation in the new government

that the Medici had founded in Florence or in Rome under the protection of the Medici

Pope Leo x The fixed fact according to Bondanella is that Machiavelli tried to get a

position from this family but he did not compose his little treatise for the goal of

obtaining the favour of the Medici His hope was to be offered a new employment in

recognition of his unquestionable abilities in the art as a merit for his qualifications and

impeccable honesty but not as a reward for cajolery Bondanellas witness to support his

idea was the following extract taken from the famous letter that Machiavelli sent to his

friend Francesco Vettori on 10 December 151337

Then again I am anxious for the House of Medici tobegin using me at some negotiation or other if they are ever to begin If I should not succeed in winning them afterwards I would always be sorry I had not given them the book Then again if they were to read it they would see that I was not sleeping or idling all those fifteen years that I devoted to statecraft Anybody it seems to me should be glad to have the services of a man who has acquired so much experience at the expense of other employers Of my trustworthiness there could be no doubt Having so long kept faith with people I would not be likely to begin betraying now A man who has kept his word loyally for forty-three years as I have could not change his nature very easily The fact that I am a poor man is proof of my loyalty and honour38

But the last three lines of Machiavellis dedication to Lorenzo de Medici can be

interpreted as an attempt to win Medici favour It would be better for Machiavelli not to

write these lines They embrace a lot of exploring and that is what reflected a bad effect

on the great value of the previous speech At the end of the dedication Machiavelli said

48

If Your Magnificence will at some time turn your eyes from the summit of your high

position toward these low places you will realize to what degree I unjustly suffer a great

and continuous malignity of fortune(The Prince p 6)

The Prince is undoubtedly a distinguished landmark in the history of political

philosophy It is

A skilful artifice in statecraft a mighty manual in the art of Government and governing a pole-star to guide the sailing ship of rulers princes princedoms and political leaders at the helm of state-affairs state administration and its management It is an exploration into the very genesis origin of the formation and acquisition of a Government hellip a guidelines for rulers kings and princes hereditary princedoms and other forms of Governments newly formed and acquired It is a recipe for all the ills that inflict the states and the statesmen kings and kingdoms a golden-touch to transmute the functioning of a Government safe and secure a panacea for the ailments of a state its citizens and the subjects39

Machiavelli never based any political discussion on Christian or biblical ground

Depending on historical examples The Prince was a political treatise that offered

advices disregarding all moral and ethical values It was the first book to divorce

statecraft from the ethics and that is why it could be seen as unique In The Prince

Machiavelli did not tell what typical prince or principality was but he illustrated by

examples the successful princes in getting and maintaining power All of his examples

were driven from his personal observations written during his occupation as a diplomat

for Florence and his deep reading of ancient history40

Although The Prince was a short book it was the most remembered of

Machiavellies writings The unscrupulous methods Machiavelli used to suggest his

prince was the direct cause that made his name synonym to a nefarious political

conspiracy bringing the term Machiavellian to be used widely as a disdainful term

Such a rulers first duty Machiavelli argued was to do anything it took to secure and

maintain power even if that meant overriding customary moral convention41 It means

all the means could be used for the aim of founding and preserving the power The worst

49

and the treasonable deeds of the governor were justified The aims of the prince should be

consented in spite of the use of immoral means for the sake of achieving these aims and

that is what represents the main theme of this political treatise It is of course the end

justifies the means

In England Machiavellis book was forbidden by the Tudor politicians Its practical

cornerstone creeds were interpreted negatively and reductively It was one of the reasons

that help in emerging Old Nick an English term which indicated a link between

Machiavelli and the Satan42

322 The Price a Summery

Concentrating on the most important points in this book with quotations the

summery will go forward chapter by chapter The Prince consisted of twenty-six

chapters in addition to the dedication It was originally written to be presented to

Giuliano de Medici who may well esteem this treatise After Giulianos death

Machiavelli changed the dedication to Lorenzo de Medici who almost did not read it43

The dedication could be seen as a letter in which Machiavelli qualified his book as a

summery of his knowledge of the deeds of great men that came as a result of a long

experience in modern matters and constant study of the history of the Old Ages This

letter was skillfully employed by Machiavelli to draw attention to his own actions and

good services44 Machiavelli wanted to say that he knew the art of the state better than

anyone else and that his expertise was safer than the traditional wisdom that had inspired

Medicean rule since the days of Cosimo45 About this Machiavelli said

I have not found among my belongings anything that I might value more or prize so much as the knowledge of the deeds of great men that I have learned from a long experience in modern affairs and a continuous study of antiquity Having with great care and for a long time thought about and examined these deedshellip(The Prince P 5)

50

I

How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are and the Ways They Are

Acquired

In this chapter Machiavelli mentioned that the states were of two types republics

and principalities Then he explained that the principalities were either hereditary or new

The new principalities were completely new as was Milan for Francesco Sforzardquo or

similar to an addition added to an old state like the kingdom of Naples for the king of

Spain (The Prince P 7)

II

Of Hereditary Principalities

Machiavelli stated that the hereditary emirate could be governed easier than the new

one because of two reasons The first was that the people in the hereditary emirate were

familiar with their prince and his family the good prince needed no more than track the

paces of the preceding princes The second was that the people loved their prince and his

family unless he committed fatal mistakes that hurt them(The Prince pp 7-8)

III

Of Mixed Principalities

Machiavelli concentrated on the ways used by the Romans to govern the acquired

territories He said

In the regions they conquered the Romans followedthese rules very carefully They sent out colonies had dealings with the less powerful without increasing their strength put down the powerful and did not allow powerful foreigners to gain prestige there(The Prince P12)

Machiavelli supported the princes who wished to acquire more provinces describing

this wish as an ordinary thing The princes who were able to achieve this task should not

51

be blamed Those who were not able to do so and constantly tried even if they badly

affected their emirates should be condemned (The Prince P14)

He advised the prince not to avoid the necessary war saying that one should never

allow disorder to persist in order to avoid going to war because one does not avoid a war

but instead defers it to your disadvantage (The Prince P15)

At the end of this chapter Machiavelli inferred an important rule which according to

him rarely failed He believed that anyone who helped another to be powerful came to

destroy himself ldquobecause that power has been brought about by either through cunning or

by force and both of these two qualities are suspect to the one who has become

powerfulrdquo (The Prince P 15-16) In regard to this rule it seemed that Machiavelli had

read the line of poetry uttered by the Arabic poet Man Bin Aus Al Muzni who belonged

to the pre-Islamic period

46 أعلمھ الرمایة كل یوم ولما إستد ساعده رماني

In this line the poet addressed someone saying I teach him everyday how to fling the

javelin but when he learnt flinging accurately the first to be killed was me

IV

Why the Kingdom of Darius Occupied by Alexander Did Not Rebel Against His

Successors After the Death of Alexander

In this chapter Machiavelli defined two ways to govern all types of emirates The

first was to be governed by the prince with the assistance of his servants who used to

help as ministers to rule the principalities The second was that the kingdom could be

governed by the prince and barons who occupied this status as a result of the antiquity

of their bloodline (The Prince P16) In such cases the barons had to have their own

dominations and subjects

In many cases the victorious depended on his lords Machiavelli gave 16th century

France as an instance to explain this case These principalities were easy to occupy but

difficult to take hold of When the people of the kingdom supported their governor it

52

would be difficult to take hold of This case could be solved by removing the old

bloodline of the prince Machiavelli gave the example of the Persian empire of Darius III

attacked by Alexander the Great to explain this case

V

How Cities or Principalities Should be Governed That Lived by Their Own Laws

before They Were Occupied

Machiavelli explained how to rule the occupied states which were habitual to

manage their affairs according to their own laws He limited three ways The first was to

destroy the old state and to found a new one The second was that the victor had to live in

the occupied state The third was to let the state to go on according to its own laws under

the condition of paying tax yearly The victor had to leave a group of his followers in

order to keep his authority and to explain to the people the importance of their need for

the victor to protect and support them It was insured to keep the state But the strongest

way to govern the occupied state was to destroy this state completely (The Prince

PP19-20)

VI

Of New Principalities Acquired by Ones Own Troops and Virtue

Machiavelli maintained that reforming an existing order represented the most

serious and difficult things that they could do for the reason that the people were

naturally against the change He emphasized that such a task needed consideration of the

greatest example of virtue in history Machiavelli wanted to say that having qualities of

virtue was a key element if a prince wished to keep his principality Quentin Skinner

commented saying that the possession of virtursquo is likewise said to be crucial to the yet

higher end of achieving princely glory47

Concerning this case Machiavelli named examples of those who became princes by

their virtue but not fortune He mentioned Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and others

of their kind (The Prince P21) Any review of their achievements and their lives could

53

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

principles that kept the state away from corruption He shed special light on the religious

rites as a key element in controlling the society27 In this respect he said

Those princes and those republics which desire toremainfree from corruption should above all else maintainincorrupt the ceremonies of their religion andshould hold them always in veneration for there can be no surer indication of the decline of a country than to see divine worship neglected28

The Discourses was dedicated to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai two

of the greatest exponents of the Orti Oricellari in Florence where aristocratic young

people met in order to discuss politics art and literature29

Machiavellis other important contributions was a military treatise under the title The

Art of War Unlike The Prince and The Discourses it was the only book that was

published during Machiavellis life time30 The Art of War was divided into a preface and

seven books which arranged as series of dialogues that took place in Orti Oricellari It

was a dialogue in the humanist tradition of imitating classical forms31

The purpose of this book was mentioned by Fabrizio within the opening pages when

he stated

To honor and reward virtue not to have contempt forpoverty to esteem the modes and orders of military discipline to constrain citizens to love one another to live without factions to esteem less the private than the public good and other such things which could easily be added in these times32

321 The Prince an Introduction

The Prince was the first of Machiavellis major writings from his period of enforced

retirement during which he stayed in his farmhouse in Santrsquo Adrea in Percussina a few

miles south of Florence33 Machiavelli wrote this treatise with the aim of convincing the

dedicatee of the book that he knew well the art of the state even if he had served the

republic and his knowledge of this art was better than the Humanist rhetoricians and

the contemporary practitioneers34 The Prince was the child of Machiavellis whim a

47

pamphlet which is to bear the title The Prince and then sets out to dedicate it to one of

the men in power a prince who-the author fervently hopes-will repay him in princely

fashion with silver and situation35 Bertrand Russel supported this idea saying that ldquoThe

Prince was designed to please the Medici and that when it was written a Medici had

just become Pope (Leo x)36

Peter Bondanella did not agree with the idea that Machiavelli wrote this pamphlet in

order to please the Medici for the sake of getting an occupation in the new government

that the Medici had founded in Florence or in Rome under the protection of the Medici

Pope Leo x The fixed fact according to Bondanella is that Machiavelli tried to get a

position from this family but he did not compose his little treatise for the goal of

obtaining the favour of the Medici His hope was to be offered a new employment in

recognition of his unquestionable abilities in the art as a merit for his qualifications and

impeccable honesty but not as a reward for cajolery Bondanellas witness to support his

idea was the following extract taken from the famous letter that Machiavelli sent to his

friend Francesco Vettori on 10 December 151337

Then again I am anxious for the House of Medici tobegin using me at some negotiation or other if they are ever to begin If I should not succeed in winning them afterwards I would always be sorry I had not given them the book Then again if they were to read it they would see that I was not sleeping or idling all those fifteen years that I devoted to statecraft Anybody it seems to me should be glad to have the services of a man who has acquired so much experience at the expense of other employers Of my trustworthiness there could be no doubt Having so long kept faith with people I would not be likely to begin betraying now A man who has kept his word loyally for forty-three years as I have could not change his nature very easily The fact that I am a poor man is proof of my loyalty and honour38

But the last three lines of Machiavellis dedication to Lorenzo de Medici can be

interpreted as an attempt to win Medici favour It would be better for Machiavelli not to

write these lines They embrace a lot of exploring and that is what reflected a bad effect

on the great value of the previous speech At the end of the dedication Machiavelli said

48

If Your Magnificence will at some time turn your eyes from the summit of your high

position toward these low places you will realize to what degree I unjustly suffer a great

and continuous malignity of fortune(The Prince p 6)

The Prince is undoubtedly a distinguished landmark in the history of political

philosophy It is

A skilful artifice in statecraft a mighty manual in the art of Government and governing a pole-star to guide the sailing ship of rulers princes princedoms and political leaders at the helm of state-affairs state administration and its management It is an exploration into the very genesis origin of the formation and acquisition of a Government hellip a guidelines for rulers kings and princes hereditary princedoms and other forms of Governments newly formed and acquired It is a recipe for all the ills that inflict the states and the statesmen kings and kingdoms a golden-touch to transmute the functioning of a Government safe and secure a panacea for the ailments of a state its citizens and the subjects39

Machiavelli never based any political discussion on Christian or biblical ground

Depending on historical examples The Prince was a political treatise that offered

advices disregarding all moral and ethical values It was the first book to divorce

statecraft from the ethics and that is why it could be seen as unique In The Prince

Machiavelli did not tell what typical prince or principality was but he illustrated by

examples the successful princes in getting and maintaining power All of his examples

were driven from his personal observations written during his occupation as a diplomat

for Florence and his deep reading of ancient history40

Although The Prince was a short book it was the most remembered of

Machiavellies writings The unscrupulous methods Machiavelli used to suggest his

prince was the direct cause that made his name synonym to a nefarious political

conspiracy bringing the term Machiavellian to be used widely as a disdainful term

Such a rulers first duty Machiavelli argued was to do anything it took to secure and

maintain power even if that meant overriding customary moral convention41 It means

all the means could be used for the aim of founding and preserving the power The worst

49

and the treasonable deeds of the governor were justified The aims of the prince should be

consented in spite of the use of immoral means for the sake of achieving these aims and

that is what represents the main theme of this political treatise It is of course the end

justifies the means

In England Machiavellis book was forbidden by the Tudor politicians Its practical

cornerstone creeds were interpreted negatively and reductively It was one of the reasons

that help in emerging Old Nick an English term which indicated a link between

Machiavelli and the Satan42

322 The Price a Summery

Concentrating on the most important points in this book with quotations the

summery will go forward chapter by chapter The Prince consisted of twenty-six

chapters in addition to the dedication It was originally written to be presented to

Giuliano de Medici who may well esteem this treatise After Giulianos death

Machiavelli changed the dedication to Lorenzo de Medici who almost did not read it43

The dedication could be seen as a letter in which Machiavelli qualified his book as a

summery of his knowledge of the deeds of great men that came as a result of a long

experience in modern matters and constant study of the history of the Old Ages This

letter was skillfully employed by Machiavelli to draw attention to his own actions and

good services44 Machiavelli wanted to say that he knew the art of the state better than

anyone else and that his expertise was safer than the traditional wisdom that had inspired

Medicean rule since the days of Cosimo45 About this Machiavelli said

I have not found among my belongings anything that I might value more or prize so much as the knowledge of the deeds of great men that I have learned from a long experience in modern affairs and a continuous study of antiquity Having with great care and for a long time thought about and examined these deedshellip(The Prince P 5)

50

I

How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are and the Ways They Are

Acquired

In this chapter Machiavelli mentioned that the states were of two types republics

and principalities Then he explained that the principalities were either hereditary or new

The new principalities were completely new as was Milan for Francesco Sforzardquo or

similar to an addition added to an old state like the kingdom of Naples for the king of

Spain (The Prince P 7)

II

Of Hereditary Principalities

Machiavelli stated that the hereditary emirate could be governed easier than the new

one because of two reasons The first was that the people in the hereditary emirate were

familiar with their prince and his family the good prince needed no more than track the

paces of the preceding princes The second was that the people loved their prince and his

family unless he committed fatal mistakes that hurt them(The Prince pp 7-8)

III

Of Mixed Principalities

Machiavelli concentrated on the ways used by the Romans to govern the acquired

territories He said

In the regions they conquered the Romans followedthese rules very carefully They sent out colonies had dealings with the less powerful without increasing their strength put down the powerful and did not allow powerful foreigners to gain prestige there(The Prince P12)

Machiavelli supported the princes who wished to acquire more provinces describing

this wish as an ordinary thing The princes who were able to achieve this task should not

51

be blamed Those who were not able to do so and constantly tried even if they badly

affected their emirates should be condemned (The Prince P14)

He advised the prince not to avoid the necessary war saying that one should never

allow disorder to persist in order to avoid going to war because one does not avoid a war

but instead defers it to your disadvantage (The Prince P15)

At the end of this chapter Machiavelli inferred an important rule which according to

him rarely failed He believed that anyone who helped another to be powerful came to

destroy himself ldquobecause that power has been brought about by either through cunning or

by force and both of these two qualities are suspect to the one who has become

powerfulrdquo (The Prince P 15-16) In regard to this rule it seemed that Machiavelli had

read the line of poetry uttered by the Arabic poet Man Bin Aus Al Muzni who belonged

to the pre-Islamic period

46 أعلمھ الرمایة كل یوم ولما إستد ساعده رماني

In this line the poet addressed someone saying I teach him everyday how to fling the

javelin but when he learnt flinging accurately the first to be killed was me

IV

Why the Kingdom of Darius Occupied by Alexander Did Not Rebel Against His

Successors After the Death of Alexander

In this chapter Machiavelli defined two ways to govern all types of emirates The

first was to be governed by the prince with the assistance of his servants who used to

help as ministers to rule the principalities The second was that the kingdom could be

governed by the prince and barons who occupied this status as a result of the antiquity

of their bloodline (The Prince P16) In such cases the barons had to have their own

dominations and subjects

In many cases the victorious depended on his lords Machiavelli gave 16th century

France as an instance to explain this case These principalities were easy to occupy but

difficult to take hold of When the people of the kingdom supported their governor it

52

would be difficult to take hold of This case could be solved by removing the old

bloodline of the prince Machiavelli gave the example of the Persian empire of Darius III

attacked by Alexander the Great to explain this case

V

How Cities or Principalities Should be Governed That Lived by Their Own Laws

before They Were Occupied

Machiavelli explained how to rule the occupied states which were habitual to

manage their affairs according to their own laws He limited three ways The first was to

destroy the old state and to found a new one The second was that the victor had to live in

the occupied state The third was to let the state to go on according to its own laws under

the condition of paying tax yearly The victor had to leave a group of his followers in

order to keep his authority and to explain to the people the importance of their need for

the victor to protect and support them It was insured to keep the state But the strongest

way to govern the occupied state was to destroy this state completely (The Prince

PP19-20)

VI

Of New Principalities Acquired by Ones Own Troops and Virtue

Machiavelli maintained that reforming an existing order represented the most

serious and difficult things that they could do for the reason that the people were

naturally against the change He emphasized that such a task needed consideration of the

greatest example of virtue in history Machiavelli wanted to say that having qualities of

virtue was a key element if a prince wished to keep his principality Quentin Skinner

commented saying that the possession of virtursquo is likewise said to be crucial to the yet

higher end of achieving princely glory47

Concerning this case Machiavelli named examples of those who became princes by

their virtue but not fortune He mentioned Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and others

of their kind (The Prince P21) Any review of their achievements and their lives could

53

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

pamphlet which is to bear the title The Prince and then sets out to dedicate it to one of

the men in power a prince who-the author fervently hopes-will repay him in princely

fashion with silver and situation35 Bertrand Russel supported this idea saying that ldquoThe

Prince was designed to please the Medici and that when it was written a Medici had

just become Pope (Leo x)36

Peter Bondanella did not agree with the idea that Machiavelli wrote this pamphlet in

order to please the Medici for the sake of getting an occupation in the new government

that the Medici had founded in Florence or in Rome under the protection of the Medici

Pope Leo x The fixed fact according to Bondanella is that Machiavelli tried to get a

position from this family but he did not compose his little treatise for the goal of

obtaining the favour of the Medici His hope was to be offered a new employment in

recognition of his unquestionable abilities in the art as a merit for his qualifications and

impeccable honesty but not as a reward for cajolery Bondanellas witness to support his

idea was the following extract taken from the famous letter that Machiavelli sent to his

friend Francesco Vettori on 10 December 151337

Then again I am anxious for the House of Medici tobegin using me at some negotiation or other if they are ever to begin If I should not succeed in winning them afterwards I would always be sorry I had not given them the book Then again if they were to read it they would see that I was not sleeping or idling all those fifteen years that I devoted to statecraft Anybody it seems to me should be glad to have the services of a man who has acquired so much experience at the expense of other employers Of my trustworthiness there could be no doubt Having so long kept faith with people I would not be likely to begin betraying now A man who has kept his word loyally for forty-three years as I have could not change his nature very easily The fact that I am a poor man is proof of my loyalty and honour38

But the last three lines of Machiavellis dedication to Lorenzo de Medici can be

interpreted as an attempt to win Medici favour It would be better for Machiavelli not to

write these lines They embrace a lot of exploring and that is what reflected a bad effect

on the great value of the previous speech At the end of the dedication Machiavelli said

48

If Your Magnificence will at some time turn your eyes from the summit of your high

position toward these low places you will realize to what degree I unjustly suffer a great

and continuous malignity of fortune(The Prince p 6)

The Prince is undoubtedly a distinguished landmark in the history of political

philosophy It is

A skilful artifice in statecraft a mighty manual in the art of Government and governing a pole-star to guide the sailing ship of rulers princes princedoms and political leaders at the helm of state-affairs state administration and its management It is an exploration into the very genesis origin of the formation and acquisition of a Government hellip a guidelines for rulers kings and princes hereditary princedoms and other forms of Governments newly formed and acquired It is a recipe for all the ills that inflict the states and the statesmen kings and kingdoms a golden-touch to transmute the functioning of a Government safe and secure a panacea for the ailments of a state its citizens and the subjects39

Machiavelli never based any political discussion on Christian or biblical ground

Depending on historical examples The Prince was a political treatise that offered

advices disregarding all moral and ethical values It was the first book to divorce

statecraft from the ethics and that is why it could be seen as unique In The Prince

Machiavelli did not tell what typical prince or principality was but he illustrated by

examples the successful princes in getting and maintaining power All of his examples

were driven from his personal observations written during his occupation as a diplomat

for Florence and his deep reading of ancient history40

Although The Prince was a short book it was the most remembered of

Machiavellies writings The unscrupulous methods Machiavelli used to suggest his

prince was the direct cause that made his name synonym to a nefarious political

conspiracy bringing the term Machiavellian to be used widely as a disdainful term

Such a rulers first duty Machiavelli argued was to do anything it took to secure and

maintain power even if that meant overriding customary moral convention41 It means

all the means could be used for the aim of founding and preserving the power The worst

49

and the treasonable deeds of the governor were justified The aims of the prince should be

consented in spite of the use of immoral means for the sake of achieving these aims and

that is what represents the main theme of this political treatise It is of course the end

justifies the means

In England Machiavellis book was forbidden by the Tudor politicians Its practical

cornerstone creeds were interpreted negatively and reductively It was one of the reasons

that help in emerging Old Nick an English term which indicated a link between

Machiavelli and the Satan42

322 The Price a Summery

Concentrating on the most important points in this book with quotations the

summery will go forward chapter by chapter The Prince consisted of twenty-six

chapters in addition to the dedication It was originally written to be presented to

Giuliano de Medici who may well esteem this treatise After Giulianos death

Machiavelli changed the dedication to Lorenzo de Medici who almost did not read it43

The dedication could be seen as a letter in which Machiavelli qualified his book as a

summery of his knowledge of the deeds of great men that came as a result of a long

experience in modern matters and constant study of the history of the Old Ages This

letter was skillfully employed by Machiavelli to draw attention to his own actions and

good services44 Machiavelli wanted to say that he knew the art of the state better than

anyone else and that his expertise was safer than the traditional wisdom that had inspired

Medicean rule since the days of Cosimo45 About this Machiavelli said

I have not found among my belongings anything that I might value more or prize so much as the knowledge of the deeds of great men that I have learned from a long experience in modern affairs and a continuous study of antiquity Having with great care and for a long time thought about and examined these deedshellip(The Prince P 5)

50

I

How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are and the Ways They Are

Acquired

In this chapter Machiavelli mentioned that the states were of two types republics

and principalities Then he explained that the principalities were either hereditary or new

The new principalities were completely new as was Milan for Francesco Sforzardquo or

similar to an addition added to an old state like the kingdom of Naples for the king of

Spain (The Prince P 7)

II

Of Hereditary Principalities

Machiavelli stated that the hereditary emirate could be governed easier than the new

one because of two reasons The first was that the people in the hereditary emirate were

familiar with their prince and his family the good prince needed no more than track the

paces of the preceding princes The second was that the people loved their prince and his

family unless he committed fatal mistakes that hurt them(The Prince pp 7-8)

III

Of Mixed Principalities

Machiavelli concentrated on the ways used by the Romans to govern the acquired

territories He said

In the regions they conquered the Romans followedthese rules very carefully They sent out colonies had dealings with the less powerful without increasing their strength put down the powerful and did not allow powerful foreigners to gain prestige there(The Prince P12)

Machiavelli supported the princes who wished to acquire more provinces describing

this wish as an ordinary thing The princes who were able to achieve this task should not

51

be blamed Those who were not able to do so and constantly tried even if they badly

affected their emirates should be condemned (The Prince P14)

He advised the prince not to avoid the necessary war saying that one should never

allow disorder to persist in order to avoid going to war because one does not avoid a war

but instead defers it to your disadvantage (The Prince P15)

At the end of this chapter Machiavelli inferred an important rule which according to

him rarely failed He believed that anyone who helped another to be powerful came to

destroy himself ldquobecause that power has been brought about by either through cunning or

by force and both of these two qualities are suspect to the one who has become

powerfulrdquo (The Prince P 15-16) In regard to this rule it seemed that Machiavelli had

read the line of poetry uttered by the Arabic poet Man Bin Aus Al Muzni who belonged

to the pre-Islamic period

46 أعلمھ الرمایة كل یوم ولما إستد ساعده رماني

In this line the poet addressed someone saying I teach him everyday how to fling the

javelin but when he learnt flinging accurately the first to be killed was me

IV

Why the Kingdom of Darius Occupied by Alexander Did Not Rebel Against His

Successors After the Death of Alexander

In this chapter Machiavelli defined two ways to govern all types of emirates The

first was to be governed by the prince with the assistance of his servants who used to

help as ministers to rule the principalities The second was that the kingdom could be

governed by the prince and barons who occupied this status as a result of the antiquity

of their bloodline (The Prince P16) In such cases the barons had to have their own

dominations and subjects

In many cases the victorious depended on his lords Machiavelli gave 16th century

France as an instance to explain this case These principalities were easy to occupy but

difficult to take hold of When the people of the kingdom supported their governor it

52

would be difficult to take hold of This case could be solved by removing the old

bloodline of the prince Machiavelli gave the example of the Persian empire of Darius III

attacked by Alexander the Great to explain this case

V

How Cities or Principalities Should be Governed That Lived by Their Own Laws

before They Were Occupied

Machiavelli explained how to rule the occupied states which were habitual to

manage their affairs according to their own laws He limited three ways The first was to

destroy the old state and to found a new one The second was that the victor had to live in

the occupied state The third was to let the state to go on according to its own laws under

the condition of paying tax yearly The victor had to leave a group of his followers in

order to keep his authority and to explain to the people the importance of their need for

the victor to protect and support them It was insured to keep the state But the strongest

way to govern the occupied state was to destroy this state completely (The Prince

PP19-20)

VI

Of New Principalities Acquired by Ones Own Troops and Virtue

Machiavelli maintained that reforming an existing order represented the most

serious and difficult things that they could do for the reason that the people were

naturally against the change He emphasized that such a task needed consideration of the

greatest example of virtue in history Machiavelli wanted to say that having qualities of

virtue was a key element if a prince wished to keep his principality Quentin Skinner

commented saying that the possession of virtursquo is likewise said to be crucial to the yet

higher end of achieving princely glory47

Concerning this case Machiavelli named examples of those who became princes by

their virtue but not fortune He mentioned Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and others

of their kind (The Prince P21) Any review of their achievements and their lives could

53

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

If Your Magnificence will at some time turn your eyes from the summit of your high

position toward these low places you will realize to what degree I unjustly suffer a great

and continuous malignity of fortune(The Prince p 6)

The Prince is undoubtedly a distinguished landmark in the history of political

philosophy It is

A skilful artifice in statecraft a mighty manual in the art of Government and governing a pole-star to guide the sailing ship of rulers princes princedoms and political leaders at the helm of state-affairs state administration and its management It is an exploration into the very genesis origin of the formation and acquisition of a Government hellip a guidelines for rulers kings and princes hereditary princedoms and other forms of Governments newly formed and acquired It is a recipe for all the ills that inflict the states and the statesmen kings and kingdoms a golden-touch to transmute the functioning of a Government safe and secure a panacea for the ailments of a state its citizens and the subjects39

Machiavelli never based any political discussion on Christian or biblical ground

Depending on historical examples The Prince was a political treatise that offered

advices disregarding all moral and ethical values It was the first book to divorce

statecraft from the ethics and that is why it could be seen as unique In The Prince

Machiavelli did not tell what typical prince or principality was but he illustrated by

examples the successful princes in getting and maintaining power All of his examples

were driven from his personal observations written during his occupation as a diplomat

for Florence and his deep reading of ancient history40

Although The Prince was a short book it was the most remembered of

Machiavellies writings The unscrupulous methods Machiavelli used to suggest his

prince was the direct cause that made his name synonym to a nefarious political

conspiracy bringing the term Machiavellian to be used widely as a disdainful term

Such a rulers first duty Machiavelli argued was to do anything it took to secure and

maintain power even if that meant overriding customary moral convention41 It means

all the means could be used for the aim of founding and preserving the power The worst

49

and the treasonable deeds of the governor were justified The aims of the prince should be

consented in spite of the use of immoral means for the sake of achieving these aims and

that is what represents the main theme of this political treatise It is of course the end

justifies the means

In England Machiavellis book was forbidden by the Tudor politicians Its practical

cornerstone creeds were interpreted negatively and reductively It was one of the reasons

that help in emerging Old Nick an English term which indicated a link between

Machiavelli and the Satan42

322 The Price a Summery

Concentrating on the most important points in this book with quotations the

summery will go forward chapter by chapter The Prince consisted of twenty-six

chapters in addition to the dedication It was originally written to be presented to

Giuliano de Medici who may well esteem this treatise After Giulianos death

Machiavelli changed the dedication to Lorenzo de Medici who almost did not read it43

The dedication could be seen as a letter in which Machiavelli qualified his book as a

summery of his knowledge of the deeds of great men that came as a result of a long

experience in modern matters and constant study of the history of the Old Ages This

letter was skillfully employed by Machiavelli to draw attention to his own actions and

good services44 Machiavelli wanted to say that he knew the art of the state better than

anyone else and that his expertise was safer than the traditional wisdom that had inspired

Medicean rule since the days of Cosimo45 About this Machiavelli said

I have not found among my belongings anything that I might value more or prize so much as the knowledge of the deeds of great men that I have learned from a long experience in modern affairs and a continuous study of antiquity Having with great care and for a long time thought about and examined these deedshellip(The Prince P 5)

50

I

How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are and the Ways They Are

Acquired

In this chapter Machiavelli mentioned that the states were of two types republics

and principalities Then he explained that the principalities were either hereditary or new

The new principalities were completely new as was Milan for Francesco Sforzardquo or

similar to an addition added to an old state like the kingdom of Naples for the king of

Spain (The Prince P 7)

II

Of Hereditary Principalities

Machiavelli stated that the hereditary emirate could be governed easier than the new

one because of two reasons The first was that the people in the hereditary emirate were

familiar with their prince and his family the good prince needed no more than track the

paces of the preceding princes The second was that the people loved their prince and his

family unless he committed fatal mistakes that hurt them(The Prince pp 7-8)

III

Of Mixed Principalities

Machiavelli concentrated on the ways used by the Romans to govern the acquired

territories He said

In the regions they conquered the Romans followedthese rules very carefully They sent out colonies had dealings with the less powerful without increasing their strength put down the powerful and did not allow powerful foreigners to gain prestige there(The Prince P12)

Machiavelli supported the princes who wished to acquire more provinces describing

this wish as an ordinary thing The princes who were able to achieve this task should not

51

be blamed Those who were not able to do so and constantly tried even if they badly

affected their emirates should be condemned (The Prince P14)

He advised the prince not to avoid the necessary war saying that one should never

allow disorder to persist in order to avoid going to war because one does not avoid a war

but instead defers it to your disadvantage (The Prince P15)

At the end of this chapter Machiavelli inferred an important rule which according to

him rarely failed He believed that anyone who helped another to be powerful came to

destroy himself ldquobecause that power has been brought about by either through cunning or

by force and both of these two qualities are suspect to the one who has become

powerfulrdquo (The Prince P 15-16) In regard to this rule it seemed that Machiavelli had

read the line of poetry uttered by the Arabic poet Man Bin Aus Al Muzni who belonged

to the pre-Islamic period

46 أعلمھ الرمایة كل یوم ولما إستد ساعده رماني

In this line the poet addressed someone saying I teach him everyday how to fling the

javelin but when he learnt flinging accurately the first to be killed was me

IV

Why the Kingdom of Darius Occupied by Alexander Did Not Rebel Against His

Successors After the Death of Alexander

In this chapter Machiavelli defined two ways to govern all types of emirates The

first was to be governed by the prince with the assistance of his servants who used to

help as ministers to rule the principalities The second was that the kingdom could be

governed by the prince and barons who occupied this status as a result of the antiquity

of their bloodline (The Prince P16) In such cases the barons had to have their own

dominations and subjects

In many cases the victorious depended on his lords Machiavelli gave 16th century

France as an instance to explain this case These principalities were easy to occupy but

difficult to take hold of When the people of the kingdom supported their governor it

52

would be difficult to take hold of This case could be solved by removing the old

bloodline of the prince Machiavelli gave the example of the Persian empire of Darius III

attacked by Alexander the Great to explain this case

V

How Cities or Principalities Should be Governed That Lived by Their Own Laws

before They Were Occupied

Machiavelli explained how to rule the occupied states which were habitual to

manage their affairs according to their own laws He limited three ways The first was to

destroy the old state and to found a new one The second was that the victor had to live in

the occupied state The third was to let the state to go on according to its own laws under

the condition of paying tax yearly The victor had to leave a group of his followers in

order to keep his authority and to explain to the people the importance of their need for

the victor to protect and support them It was insured to keep the state But the strongest

way to govern the occupied state was to destroy this state completely (The Prince

PP19-20)

VI

Of New Principalities Acquired by Ones Own Troops and Virtue

Machiavelli maintained that reforming an existing order represented the most

serious and difficult things that they could do for the reason that the people were

naturally against the change He emphasized that such a task needed consideration of the

greatest example of virtue in history Machiavelli wanted to say that having qualities of

virtue was a key element if a prince wished to keep his principality Quentin Skinner

commented saying that the possession of virtursquo is likewise said to be crucial to the yet

higher end of achieving princely glory47

Concerning this case Machiavelli named examples of those who became princes by

their virtue but not fortune He mentioned Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and others

of their kind (The Prince P21) Any review of their achievements and their lives could

53

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

and the treasonable deeds of the governor were justified The aims of the prince should be

consented in spite of the use of immoral means for the sake of achieving these aims and

that is what represents the main theme of this political treatise It is of course the end

justifies the means

In England Machiavellis book was forbidden by the Tudor politicians Its practical

cornerstone creeds were interpreted negatively and reductively It was one of the reasons

that help in emerging Old Nick an English term which indicated a link between

Machiavelli and the Satan42

322 The Price a Summery

Concentrating on the most important points in this book with quotations the

summery will go forward chapter by chapter The Prince consisted of twenty-six

chapters in addition to the dedication It was originally written to be presented to

Giuliano de Medici who may well esteem this treatise After Giulianos death

Machiavelli changed the dedication to Lorenzo de Medici who almost did not read it43

The dedication could be seen as a letter in which Machiavelli qualified his book as a

summery of his knowledge of the deeds of great men that came as a result of a long

experience in modern matters and constant study of the history of the Old Ages This

letter was skillfully employed by Machiavelli to draw attention to his own actions and

good services44 Machiavelli wanted to say that he knew the art of the state better than

anyone else and that his expertise was safer than the traditional wisdom that had inspired

Medicean rule since the days of Cosimo45 About this Machiavelli said

I have not found among my belongings anything that I might value more or prize so much as the knowledge of the deeds of great men that I have learned from a long experience in modern affairs and a continuous study of antiquity Having with great care and for a long time thought about and examined these deedshellip(The Prince P 5)

50

I

How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are and the Ways They Are

Acquired

In this chapter Machiavelli mentioned that the states were of two types republics

and principalities Then he explained that the principalities were either hereditary or new

The new principalities were completely new as was Milan for Francesco Sforzardquo or

similar to an addition added to an old state like the kingdom of Naples for the king of

Spain (The Prince P 7)

II

Of Hereditary Principalities

Machiavelli stated that the hereditary emirate could be governed easier than the new

one because of two reasons The first was that the people in the hereditary emirate were

familiar with their prince and his family the good prince needed no more than track the

paces of the preceding princes The second was that the people loved their prince and his

family unless he committed fatal mistakes that hurt them(The Prince pp 7-8)

III

Of Mixed Principalities

Machiavelli concentrated on the ways used by the Romans to govern the acquired

territories He said

In the regions they conquered the Romans followedthese rules very carefully They sent out colonies had dealings with the less powerful without increasing their strength put down the powerful and did not allow powerful foreigners to gain prestige there(The Prince P12)

Machiavelli supported the princes who wished to acquire more provinces describing

this wish as an ordinary thing The princes who were able to achieve this task should not

51

be blamed Those who were not able to do so and constantly tried even if they badly

affected their emirates should be condemned (The Prince P14)

He advised the prince not to avoid the necessary war saying that one should never

allow disorder to persist in order to avoid going to war because one does not avoid a war

but instead defers it to your disadvantage (The Prince P15)

At the end of this chapter Machiavelli inferred an important rule which according to

him rarely failed He believed that anyone who helped another to be powerful came to

destroy himself ldquobecause that power has been brought about by either through cunning or

by force and both of these two qualities are suspect to the one who has become

powerfulrdquo (The Prince P 15-16) In regard to this rule it seemed that Machiavelli had

read the line of poetry uttered by the Arabic poet Man Bin Aus Al Muzni who belonged

to the pre-Islamic period

46 أعلمھ الرمایة كل یوم ولما إستد ساعده رماني

In this line the poet addressed someone saying I teach him everyday how to fling the

javelin but when he learnt flinging accurately the first to be killed was me

IV

Why the Kingdom of Darius Occupied by Alexander Did Not Rebel Against His

Successors After the Death of Alexander

In this chapter Machiavelli defined two ways to govern all types of emirates The

first was to be governed by the prince with the assistance of his servants who used to

help as ministers to rule the principalities The second was that the kingdom could be

governed by the prince and barons who occupied this status as a result of the antiquity

of their bloodline (The Prince P16) In such cases the barons had to have their own

dominations and subjects

In many cases the victorious depended on his lords Machiavelli gave 16th century

France as an instance to explain this case These principalities were easy to occupy but

difficult to take hold of When the people of the kingdom supported their governor it

52

would be difficult to take hold of This case could be solved by removing the old

bloodline of the prince Machiavelli gave the example of the Persian empire of Darius III

attacked by Alexander the Great to explain this case

V

How Cities or Principalities Should be Governed That Lived by Their Own Laws

before They Were Occupied

Machiavelli explained how to rule the occupied states which were habitual to

manage their affairs according to their own laws He limited three ways The first was to

destroy the old state and to found a new one The second was that the victor had to live in

the occupied state The third was to let the state to go on according to its own laws under

the condition of paying tax yearly The victor had to leave a group of his followers in

order to keep his authority and to explain to the people the importance of their need for

the victor to protect and support them It was insured to keep the state But the strongest

way to govern the occupied state was to destroy this state completely (The Prince

PP19-20)

VI

Of New Principalities Acquired by Ones Own Troops and Virtue

Machiavelli maintained that reforming an existing order represented the most

serious and difficult things that they could do for the reason that the people were

naturally against the change He emphasized that such a task needed consideration of the

greatest example of virtue in history Machiavelli wanted to say that having qualities of

virtue was a key element if a prince wished to keep his principality Quentin Skinner

commented saying that the possession of virtursquo is likewise said to be crucial to the yet

higher end of achieving princely glory47

Concerning this case Machiavelli named examples of those who became princes by

their virtue but not fortune He mentioned Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and others

of their kind (The Prince P21) Any review of their achievements and their lives could

53

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

I

How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are and the Ways They Are

Acquired

In this chapter Machiavelli mentioned that the states were of two types republics

and principalities Then he explained that the principalities were either hereditary or new

The new principalities were completely new as was Milan for Francesco Sforzardquo or

similar to an addition added to an old state like the kingdom of Naples for the king of

Spain (The Prince P 7)

II

Of Hereditary Principalities

Machiavelli stated that the hereditary emirate could be governed easier than the new

one because of two reasons The first was that the people in the hereditary emirate were

familiar with their prince and his family the good prince needed no more than track the

paces of the preceding princes The second was that the people loved their prince and his

family unless he committed fatal mistakes that hurt them(The Prince pp 7-8)

III

Of Mixed Principalities

Machiavelli concentrated on the ways used by the Romans to govern the acquired

territories He said

In the regions they conquered the Romans followedthese rules very carefully They sent out colonies had dealings with the less powerful without increasing their strength put down the powerful and did not allow powerful foreigners to gain prestige there(The Prince P12)

Machiavelli supported the princes who wished to acquire more provinces describing

this wish as an ordinary thing The princes who were able to achieve this task should not

51

be blamed Those who were not able to do so and constantly tried even if they badly

affected their emirates should be condemned (The Prince P14)

He advised the prince not to avoid the necessary war saying that one should never

allow disorder to persist in order to avoid going to war because one does not avoid a war

but instead defers it to your disadvantage (The Prince P15)

At the end of this chapter Machiavelli inferred an important rule which according to

him rarely failed He believed that anyone who helped another to be powerful came to

destroy himself ldquobecause that power has been brought about by either through cunning or

by force and both of these two qualities are suspect to the one who has become

powerfulrdquo (The Prince P 15-16) In regard to this rule it seemed that Machiavelli had

read the line of poetry uttered by the Arabic poet Man Bin Aus Al Muzni who belonged

to the pre-Islamic period

46 أعلمھ الرمایة كل یوم ولما إستد ساعده رماني

In this line the poet addressed someone saying I teach him everyday how to fling the

javelin but when he learnt flinging accurately the first to be killed was me

IV

Why the Kingdom of Darius Occupied by Alexander Did Not Rebel Against His

Successors After the Death of Alexander

In this chapter Machiavelli defined two ways to govern all types of emirates The

first was to be governed by the prince with the assistance of his servants who used to

help as ministers to rule the principalities The second was that the kingdom could be

governed by the prince and barons who occupied this status as a result of the antiquity

of their bloodline (The Prince P16) In such cases the barons had to have their own

dominations and subjects

In many cases the victorious depended on his lords Machiavelli gave 16th century

France as an instance to explain this case These principalities were easy to occupy but

difficult to take hold of When the people of the kingdom supported their governor it

52

would be difficult to take hold of This case could be solved by removing the old

bloodline of the prince Machiavelli gave the example of the Persian empire of Darius III

attacked by Alexander the Great to explain this case

V

How Cities or Principalities Should be Governed That Lived by Their Own Laws

before They Were Occupied

Machiavelli explained how to rule the occupied states which were habitual to

manage their affairs according to their own laws He limited three ways The first was to

destroy the old state and to found a new one The second was that the victor had to live in

the occupied state The third was to let the state to go on according to its own laws under

the condition of paying tax yearly The victor had to leave a group of his followers in

order to keep his authority and to explain to the people the importance of their need for

the victor to protect and support them It was insured to keep the state But the strongest

way to govern the occupied state was to destroy this state completely (The Prince

PP19-20)

VI

Of New Principalities Acquired by Ones Own Troops and Virtue

Machiavelli maintained that reforming an existing order represented the most

serious and difficult things that they could do for the reason that the people were

naturally against the change He emphasized that such a task needed consideration of the

greatest example of virtue in history Machiavelli wanted to say that having qualities of

virtue was a key element if a prince wished to keep his principality Quentin Skinner

commented saying that the possession of virtursquo is likewise said to be crucial to the yet

higher end of achieving princely glory47

Concerning this case Machiavelli named examples of those who became princes by

their virtue but not fortune He mentioned Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and others

of their kind (The Prince P21) Any review of their achievements and their lives could

53

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

be blamed Those who were not able to do so and constantly tried even if they badly

affected their emirates should be condemned (The Prince P14)

He advised the prince not to avoid the necessary war saying that one should never

allow disorder to persist in order to avoid going to war because one does not avoid a war

but instead defers it to your disadvantage (The Prince P15)

At the end of this chapter Machiavelli inferred an important rule which according to

him rarely failed He believed that anyone who helped another to be powerful came to

destroy himself ldquobecause that power has been brought about by either through cunning or

by force and both of these two qualities are suspect to the one who has become

powerfulrdquo (The Prince P 15-16) In regard to this rule it seemed that Machiavelli had

read the line of poetry uttered by the Arabic poet Man Bin Aus Al Muzni who belonged

to the pre-Islamic period

46 أعلمھ الرمایة كل یوم ولما إستد ساعده رماني

In this line the poet addressed someone saying I teach him everyday how to fling the

javelin but when he learnt flinging accurately the first to be killed was me

IV

Why the Kingdom of Darius Occupied by Alexander Did Not Rebel Against His

Successors After the Death of Alexander

In this chapter Machiavelli defined two ways to govern all types of emirates The

first was to be governed by the prince with the assistance of his servants who used to

help as ministers to rule the principalities The second was that the kingdom could be

governed by the prince and barons who occupied this status as a result of the antiquity

of their bloodline (The Prince P16) In such cases the barons had to have their own

dominations and subjects

In many cases the victorious depended on his lords Machiavelli gave 16th century

France as an instance to explain this case These principalities were easy to occupy but

difficult to take hold of When the people of the kingdom supported their governor it

52

would be difficult to take hold of This case could be solved by removing the old

bloodline of the prince Machiavelli gave the example of the Persian empire of Darius III

attacked by Alexander the Great to explain this case

V

How Cities or Principalities Should be Governed That Lived by Their Own Laws

before They Were Occupied

Machiavelli explained how to rule the occupied states which were habitual to

manage their affairs according to their own laws He limited three ways The first was to

destroy the old state and to found a new one The second was that the victor had to live in

the occupied state The third was to let the state to go on according to its own laws under

the condition of paying tax yearly The victor had to leave a group of his followers in

order to keep his authority and to explain to the people the importance of their need for

the victor to protect and support them It was insured to keep the state But the strongest

way to govern the occupied state was to destroy this state completely (The Prince

PP19-20)

VI

Of New Principalities Acquired by Ones Own Troops and Virtue

Machiavelli maintained that reforming an existing order represented the most

serious and difficult things that they could do for the reason that the people were

naturally against the change He emphasized that such a task needed consideration of the

greatest example of virtue in history Machiavelli wanted to say that having qualities of

virtue was a key element if a prince wished to keep his principality Quentin Skinner

commented saying that the possession of virtursquo is likewise said to be crucial to the yet

higher end of achieving princely glory47

Concerning this case Machiavelli named examples of those who became princes by

their virtue but not fortune He mentioned Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and others

of their kind (The Prince P21) Any review of their achievements and their lives could

53

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

would be difficult to take hold of This case could be solved by removing the old

bloodline of the prince Machiavelli gave the example of the Persian empire of Darius III

attacked by Alexander the Great to explain this case

V

How Cities or Principalities Should be Governed That Lived by Their Own Laws

before They Were Occupied

Machiavelli explained how to rule the occupied states which were habitual to

manage their affairs according to their own laws He limited three ways The first was to

destroy the old state and to found a new one The second was that the victor had to live in

the occupied state The third was to let the state to go on according to its own laws under

the condition of paying tax yearly The victor had to leave a group of his followers in

order to keep his authority and to explain to the people the importance of their need for

the victor to protect and support them It was insured to keep the state But the strongest

way to govern the occupied state was to destroy this state completely (The Prince

PP19-20)

VI

Of New Principalities Acquired by Ones Own Troops and Virtue

Machiavelli maintained that reforming an existing order represented the most

serious and difficult things that they could do for the reason that the people were

naturally against the change He emphasized that such a task needed consideration of the

greatest example of virtue in history Machiavelli wanted to say that having qualities of

virtue was a key element if a prince wished to keep his principality Quentin Skinner

commented saying that the possession of virtursquo is likewise said to be crucial to the yet

higher end of achieving princely glory47

Concerning this case Machiavelli named examples of those who became princes by

their virtue but not fortune He mentioned Moses Cyrus Romulus Theseus and others

of their kind (The Prince P21) Any review of their achievements and their lives could

53

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

discover that fortune provided them nothing except a chance that they exploited The

opportunity made these men successful and their outstanding virtue enabled them to

recognize that opportunity whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely

happy (The Prince PP 21-22)

VII

Of New Principalities Acquired with the Arms of Other and by Fortune

The principalities which were acquired merely through fortune and the assistance of

the others were the hardest to take hold of In such emirates the prince stood fragile he

might easily come to the power but he would face difficulties later The new prince was

not stable enough to command

Such men depend solely upon two very uncertain andunstable things the will and Fortune of him who granted them the State But they do not know how and are unable to maintain their position They do not know how to hold their state since if men are not of great intelligence and virtue it is not reasonable that they should know how to command having always lived as private citizens They are unable to do so since they do not have forces that are faithful and loyal to them (The Prince P 24)

Machiavelli offered two examples The first was about Francesco Sforda a private

citizen who became the Duke of Milan through his great deal of virtues The result was

that he was unable to maintain his emirate with ordinary effort The second example was

that of Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino who first authorized a cruel man in order to

calm the emirate Then Borgia executed this man representing that he was responsible

for cruelty Borgias fatal mistake was in creating Julius II the Pope and that is what

caused his downfall ldquoOne can only reproach him for creating Julius Pope forin this he

made a bad choicehelliprdquo (The Prince P 30)

54

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

VIII

Of Those Who Have Become Princes Through Wickedness

Machiavelli defined two ways by which an ordinary man could be a prince The

first was to become a prince through wickedness and committing crimes The king of

Syracuse Agathocles was the best instance of a stock man who occupied the position of

the emirate by perpetrating criminal acts The second was that a private citizen becomes

prince of his native city through the favour of his fellow citizens (The Prince PP 30-31)

There was no doubt that the prince who committed criminal acts as a means to gain

power was perfidious and without ethics and religion His crimes could facilitate the task

to acquire power but not glory (The Prince PP 31) The Prince in such cases should

exchange the cruelty that he used in the first sense into useful achievement in order to go

on in living in his country without conspiracies

IX

Of the Civil Principality

The civil principality was the emirate that its prince came to the head position

through the favour of the fellow citizens but not through murders Machiavelli added

that a man who hoped to reach emirate had to gain either the favour of the common

citizens or that of the nobility The prince who came to power through the nobility on the

one hand would face big difficulties because the noble men would always be competitor

to the prince and would not leave him to manage the principality according to his point of

view On the other hand the prince who came through the common people would face

simple difficulties and would find all the citizens obeying his orders and that is what

represented the best environment to achieve justice Nobles could be divided into two

types The nobles who supported the prince should be honoured and loved Those who

did not support the prince were either coward the prince should make use of them or

ambitious the prince should be aware and fear them as if they were declared enemies

they would try to find the occasion to remove him (The Prince PP 36)

55

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

Machiavelli advised the prince who came to power by the favour of the nobility to

gain the friendship of his people in order to make his task of managing principality

easier In such situation the people would love and support the prince stronger than them

if he came to the principality through their favour The people represented the best refuge

for the prince during distress time and that is why he had to gain their trust A wise

prince should always look for a means which made his people need the state and the

prince at all times and in every circumstances Then they will always be loyal to him

(The Prince P 37)

X

How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured

A prince according to Machiavelli would be able to protect his emirate as a result of

his efforts to mobilize enough army for the task of repulsing enemies The prince would

be in need of the protection of the others if he would seek defending behind his castle

during the times of danger and would not attack his enemies In such cases the prince

who had put in his consideration all the elements that he needed for strong defence would

be able to control everything during distress and he had to be clever in creating patriotic

feelings among his people as a method to make them patient and to activate them to go

on in protecting the city

XI

Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

The religious emirates were acquired through bravery or fortune and were kept

without one or the other These principalities were not in need to be guarded because

they are protected by higher causes that the human mind is unable to fathom I shall not

discuss them being exalted and maintained by Godhellip (The Prince P 40)

Before the coming of the Popes Alexander VI and Julius III the papal power was

weak as a result of the disagreement among the Roman barons and the ldquobrevity of the

reigns of the Popeshellip (The Prince P 44) Their average of life expectancy was ten

56

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

years The power of the Church was strongly increased by the Popes Alexander VI and

Julius II who used armed troops to weaken the others and collect money to support the

financial situation of the Church (The Prince PP 41-42)

XII

Of the Kinds of Troops and Mercenary Soldiers

XIII

O) Auxiliary Mixed and Citizen Soldiers

XIV

A Pricnces Duty Concerning Military Matters

The chapters XII XIII and XIV could be clubbed together under the title ldquoThe

Military Affairsrsquorsquo It is clear however that Machiavelli shed great light on the role of

sheer force in the conduct of government He assigned three chapters to discuss military

affairs arguing that any state would be baseless without strong laws and strong army48 In

these chapters Machiavelli dealt with the types of armies and the procedures that the

state needed in order to be able to defend itself and to attack its enemies A self-

sufficient Prince is one who can meet any enemy on the battlefield The Prince had to

assemble a formidable army or fortify his city because it would be difficult to be

attacked49

Machiavelli discussed one of the main points of this book the use of the

mercenaries As an experienced man in such fields he resisted the use of the

mercenaries If a prince used mercenaryarmies to help him to govern his state he would

not be stable or secure Mercenaries according to Machiavelli were of great ambition to

find their own greatness and less faithful to the Prince who employed them (The Prince

P 43)

Machiavelli resisted the use of auxiliary soldiers borrowed from allies He justified

his point of view saying that the auxiliary forces represented a danger larger than that of

the mercenaries because they were united under the command of a leader who might not

hesitate to turn against the employer50 Machiavelli stated

57

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

A wise prince has always avoided these soldiers andhas turned to his own troops He has preferred to lose with his own troops rather than to win with those of others Judging that to be no true victory which has been gained by means of foreign troops (The Prince P 48)

The preparation for war should be the main concern of the Prince The art of war

should be the only art that should be fitting the leader Machiavelli believed that ignoring

this art would be the direct reason that might cause the loss of the principality

Machiavelli advised the prince to hunt frequently for the aim of keeping fitness of

his body and studying the landscape surrounding his principality and that is what

represented the best way to learn how to protect his state For mind drilling Machiavelli

advised the Prince saying

The prince must read histories and in them consider thedeeds of excellent men He must see how they conducted themselves in wars He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats in order to avoid the latter and to imitate the former Above all else he must do as some eminent men before him have done who elected to imitate someone who had been praised and honoured before them and always keep in mind his deeds and actionshellip(The Prince P 52)

XV

Of These Things for Which Men and Particularly Princes Are Praised or Blamed

Machiavelli preferred the evil to good for the sake of maintaining power

Machiavelli justified the bad acts of the prince by the wickedness of the governed the

people He advised the prince how not to be good A man who wanted to be good at all

times would come to ruin among those who were bad Any prince wished to gain all the

good qualities but it is impossible for the aim of preserving power Bad acting was

sometimes inevitable to achieve this aim Depravity according to Machiavelli could be

seen as an evil only if it imperiled the principality and that is why he had not to fear the

condemnation of the others A prince should be wise enough to know how to avoid the

58

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

infamy of those vices that would be the direct cause of taking the state away from him

(The Prince PP 53-54)

XVI

Of Generosity and Miserliness

In this chapter Machiavelli stood strongly against bounty unless it was used as an

auxiliary factor to support the prince who was on his way to gain principalityThe

openhanded prince either spent his wealth and that of his people or the money of the

others In the first case the prince should take care in order to avoid the crisis In the

second the prince had not to worry to be generous Machiavelli maintained that the great

achievements were effected by those who were considered as stingy In this respect he

gave the example of the Pope Julius II Although he used to be generous as a means to

obtain the papacy he ldquodecided not to maintain this reputation in order to be able to wage

warrsquorsquo (The Prince PP 55-56)

XVII

Of Cruelty and Mercy and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than to Be Feared on

the Contrary

Any prince wished to be described as a merciful prince but he had to be aware in

using such mercy in order not to affect his situation badly For the task of preserving his

state united the prince had not to fear the accusation of being cruel His cruelty would be

more merciful than the mercy of those who lead their people to dangerous disorder that

would cause different types of crimes The cruelty of the prince in such cases subjected a

few persons to punishment

Concerning the argument whether it is better for the Prince to be loved than to be

fearful or the contrary Machiavellis opinion was that in view of the fact it was

impossible to unite them in one prince it was better to be feared than to be loved But the

prince had to avoid hatred

59

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

Machiavelli ended this chapter by giving an important recommendation that the

prince should establish his foundation upon his own considerations that maintain the

security of the state provided he had to observe the avoidance of hatred(The Prince

P57)

XVIII

How a Prince Should Keep His Word

According to Machiavelli the princes who had effected great achievements were

those who broke their covenants and who were able to manipulate mens mind At the

end they triumphed over those who were sincere and kept their words

He concluded that there were two ways of fighting either according to the laws or

by force The first was suitable to man and the second to wild animals In many cases the

first was not enough and that is why a prince should know the nature of the wild animal

and the man The prince should be like a fox and a lion He should be strong and

discerning at the same time in order to be able to frighten his enemies and to discover the

traps spun against him Machiavelli added that a wise prince should not keep his pact

obligatory when such pact harms the advantage of the principality and when the reasons

that caused the pact were changed Machiavelli supposed that all the men were vicious

and none respect their word As a result the prince neednrsquot be sincere in dealing with

them

Machiavelli advised the prince not to obtain all good qualities but it was very

important for him to represent having them The prince should always take care of not

committing mistake to show that he was not filled with good qualities He should appear

to be merciful faithful with integrity religious and humanity (The Prince PP 60-62)

XIX

Of Avoiding Being Despised and Hated

Machiavelli stressed that in all cases the prince should work to avoid hatred People

hate the prince who used to usurp their properties and women Sometimes it was

60

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

impossible to avoid the hatred of some members of the people in such case the prince

should avoid the hatred of the most powerful group He should assingn the negative

duties to someone else and keep the pleasant tasks for himself

The prince should rule his subjects in such a way that his decisions are respected and

should be impossible to change This will maintain his fame and will not be cheated The

prince should put in his consideration two types of fear The first was internal-

represented by his people and the second was external-represented by foreign forces The

prince could protect himself against the last fear by establishing a strong army and by

affiliations In regard to the second fear the most powerful remedy a prince had against

plots was to avoid hatred (The Prince PP 63-65)

Machiavelli concentrated on the parliament as an authority that could limit the

aspiration of nobles and satisfy the ordinary people by protecting their advantages The

prince should respect the nobles but at the same time he should be aware not to be hated

by the people Sometimes good acts breed hatred and that is why the prince who wanted

to preserve his emirate should not be good In case the group that the prince was in need

of support was corrupt whether it be the people the soldiers or the nobles-it is to your

advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them and then good deeds are

your enemy (The Prince P 67)

XX

Of Whether Fortresses and Many Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are

Useful or Harmful

As a method to keep their principalities secure the princes used different plans

Some of them divided the conquered lands Others disarmed their people Some planted

aversion among their people Others tried to win the support of those who were suspected

at the beginning of their age Some built fortresses and others destroyed them

It was better for the new prince to arm his people as much as possible because they

would be his own But when you disarm them you begin to offend them You show that

you distrust them either for cowardice or for lack of loyalty And both of these opinions

61

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

generate hatred against you (The Prince P 72) When the prince acquired a new

principality he should not arm the citizen but those who supported him and the prince

should work to weaken them gradually with time

A new Prince would be in need to acquire fame more than that of hereditary

principality The reputation could be acquired by getting over difficulties imposed on

him such as having the occasion to face enemies and defeat them in the battlefield

According to Machiavelli it would be always easy for the prince to gain the credit

of those men who were enemies at the beginning of the state Such men would be in need

to be supported for the sake of maintaining their position They will aspire to serve the

prince faithfully as a method to remove the bad opinion against them and that is why the

prince could get benefit from them better than who serve him with too much self-

confidence (The Prince P 74)

A prince who had recently acquired a new province with the help of some of its

citizens had to put in his consideration the reasons that pushed them to help him If it was

not for the sake of admiring him but as a result of their hatred to the old prince it would

be better to keep them as allies only because he could not get their satisfaction

Machiavelli supported the idea of building fortresses describing it as an old method

used since ancient times Depending on times and situations the fortresses were either

useful or harmful The prince who feared his people more than the foreigners should

build fortresses and vice versa Moreover the best fortresses were not to be hated by the

people During distress time fortresses would not save the prince whose people hated

him (The Prince PP75)

XXI

How a Prince Should Act to Acquire Esteem

The prince could establish great esteem and be well respected by achieving the

following

1 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince by effecting great deeds such as

Ferdinand of Aragon the King of Spain at Machiavellis time He had recourse to

62

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

a pious cruelty always employing religion for his own purposes chasing the

Marranos out of his kingdom and seizing their property (The Prince P 76)

2 Showing himself as an extraordinary prince in managing the internal affairs such

as Messer Bernabo Visconti of Milan who used the principle of merit and

punishment

3 The prince should be a true friend or a true enemy He should declare himself as

an ally of one prince against the other Such a policy will always be more useful

than remaining neutral (The Prince P77)

4 The prince should appear as a man who loved virtues by venerating virtuous men

and those of talents He had to encourage his people to improve and develop their

profession No one should be afraid to increase his property for fear that it will be

taken away from him while no one should shrink from undertaking any business

through fear of taxesrdquo (The Prince P 79)

XXII

Of the Princes Private Secretaries

Any observer could be able to evaluate the princes insight by looking at his

ministers and the men around him and that is why it was not an easy task for the prince to

define his ministers When his retinue was skilful and faithful the observer could always

consider the prince as a wise man for his ability to recognize them and to keep them loyal

and vice versa

Machiavelli limited three levels of intelligence one understands on its own the

second discerns what others understand and the third neither understands by itself nor

thorough others (The Prince P79) The first level was excellent the second was very

good and the third was incompetent

On the one hand the prince had to observe his minister always If he sought his own

advantage more than that of the prince he was a bad minister and untrusted simply

because he must never think about himself but always about his princehellip (The Prince

63

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

p80) On the other hand the prince should appreciate the effort of his minister honour

him and make him rich

XXIII

Of How to Avoid Flatters

It is a fact that the courts of princes were filled with flatterers The best way the

prince had to follow in order to protect himself was by electing wise men to be his

retinue and giving only them the allowances to tell him the truth in the cases he asked

about The prince should ask them about everything and listen to whatever they speak

and then he should study the matter according to his point of view In such council the

prince should not forget to behave in such a way that all will realize that the more freely

they speak the more they will please him (The Prince P 81) It is very important for

the prince to look for advice but according to the rule that when the prince wanted and

not when the others wanted He should not listen to anyone who tried to give him advice

without his asking The prince should be a very frequent questioner and then

concerning the matters inquired about a patient listener to the truth (The Prince PP

81-82)

XXIV

Why Italian Princes Have Lost Their States

Machiavelli proposed that the new prince who was able to put in his consideration

the recommendations mentioned in The Prince would get pleasure in comfortable and

stable period of ruling as if he had possessed it for a long time (The Prince P 82)

Many Italian princes such as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan lost their states

as a result of their failure in managing the military affairs of the states Another reason

was that some of princes could not avoid hatred of their people which represented a

grave problem or they had no ability to protect themselves from nobles It was better for

those who lost their states not to blame fortune but rather themselves for being remiss

64

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

Since in peaceful times they never imagined thatthings might change- not to consider the possibility of a storm in good weather is a common defect among men-when adverse times finally arrived they thought about running away and not about defending themselves(The Prince P 83)

XXV

Of Fortunes Power in Human Affairs and How She Can Be Resisted

Machiavelli to a specific extent agreed with the idea that the affairs of this world

were governed by God and fortune He thought that Fortune is the arbiter of one half of

our actions but that she still leaves the control of the other half or almost that to us

(The Prince P 84) He compared fortune to a destructive river which One could avoid its

danger by establishing dams and bridges

Machiavelli believed that fortune was changeable while men behaved obstinately

He suggested that one had to be bold but not careful He stood against hesitation for

comparing fortune to a woman who favoured those bold enough to treat her roughly51

XXVI

An Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians

It was to be noted that Machiavelli used to address Lorenzo de Medici directly

through the dedication and the last chapter of The Prince This chapter could be seen as

no more than an eloquent speech for Lorenzo to be Machiavellis prince and to work

accordingly in order to achieve his dream united Italy by creating national army

reminding him that the Italian people were good fighters and they would be able to

achieve the task

33 Machiavellis Ideas and Opinions

Machiavelli was a distinguished personality among the great figures of his time the

Renaissance period He had considerable contributions in illuminating and reviving

European societies Machiavellis opinions came to be considered the beginning of the

65

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

new western notion in politics and that is why it is very important to elaborate them

starting with his methodology

331 Machiavellis Methods of Research

In his writings Machiavelli tried to follow a new methodology He denounced the

old method of research which was common during the Middle Ages He developed a new

process a scientific method of investigation based on observation and experiment

Machiavelli employed the eyes of history to serve his aim of attending political issues

He believed that all men resembled each other in all ages and that is why they had to deal

with the same type of dilemmas by using the same means As a result it was very

important to study the past for the sake of understanding the present and that is why

Machiavelli concerned about the ancient Greece in general and the history of the ancient

Rome in particular

Machiavellis historical method was historical in so faras history was able to support his point of view in describing the present It was thus present to be found in the past politics to be found in the history What were important in Machiavellis writings were not the conclusions drawn from history rather the support to reinforce the conclusions already drawn He had used Livy as Dunning tells us for the purpose of sustaining than for the purpose of discovering principles52

Machiavelli replaced the dedicative reasoning method used before with inductive

processes taking care that his conclusions should always bear indications of perception

rather than of reasoning His clarification of the sense of the right and the wrong

his belief in the radical selfishness of man hisconception of fear and its as dominant factors in human doings and his belief in a tendency of corruption and ruin inherent in all institutions were such examples arrived through perceptions rather than through reasoning53

Machiavelli adopted the use of inductive processes in such a way that he was almost

similar to a scientist He never admonished political actions but he used to describe and

66

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

analyse them scientifically Ernest Cassier stated that Machiavelli studied political

actions in the same way as a chemist studies chemical reactions Actually Machiavelli

gained the discernment of both a scientist and an artist On the one hand he exercised his

role as a scientist in such cases that his study should build on observation and experiment

On the other hand he achieved his duty as an artist in making the best presentation of the

events54

Machiavelli always tried to connect the reasons with the result and the analytic study

obtained from history as well The main features of Machiavellis methods of research

can be stated as below

1 The use of history for the aim of induction of the events and the consequences

trying to expect whether these events would be reoccurred or not

2 In the cases of reoccurred events Machiavelli always tried to put general

recommendations that made the task of the governor easier 55

3 He tried to direct his effort to frame rules that could predict how men would

respond to political challenges and criseshelliprsquorsquo56

It is very important to explain that Machiavellis ideas and opinions were affected by

many factors but the most important was the weakness of the state Italy of his time was

in bad situation It was very weak and embodied by a collection of five states In the

south there was the kingdom of Naples in the north there was the duchy of Milan in the

northeast there was the aristocratic republic of Venice and in the center there were the

republic of Florence and the Papal state57

The city states were controlled by forceful dynasties which were of high impact on

the papacy The family that dominated the political life for a long period in Florence was

the Medici The stout governor Lorenzo di Medici died in 1492 After two years and

looking for a republic the Florentine used to revolt and fire his weak successor Piero II

who was humiliated by the French attack The unstable period brought the fanatical

religious man Savonarola to the power His fervent criticism of decay caused a schism

between Florence state and the papacy One flamboyant manifestation of Savonarolas

67

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

regime was that the Florentines should inflam their extravagant possessions and works

of arthellip Savonarola was executed in 149858

332 Machiavellis Opinion of Human Nature

There is no doubt that Machiavellis opinion of human nature was a negative one It

represented entire opposition of that to the humanists of this time who believe in the

potentialities of human mind as mentioned before in Chapter One Machiavelli assumed

that human nature is not changeable and that is what enabled him to make generalization

in politics Men according to him always reflected the same fundamental features

although there are some exceptions as a result of their conditions of life and these

features are not of the type which is traditionally admired59

Machiavelli insisted that mens passions and desires do not change through history

they are similar to each other and work according to the very manner over time resets

upon a cosmology and that is why it would be easy for a diligent one to predict future of

any state by examining the past60 Machiavelli mentioned that

If the present be compared with the remote past it iseasily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were So that if one examines with diligence the past it is easy to foresee the future of any commonwealth and to apply those remedies which were used of old or if one does not find that remedies were used to devise new ones owing to the similarity between events (The Discourses 139 P 207)

Machiavellis opinion of human nature affected his political ideas as a whole to the

point that behind almost everything that Machiavelli said about political policy was the

assumption that human nature is essentially selfish and that the effective motives on

which a statesman must rely are egoistichellip61 For Machiavelli all men are vicious and as

a result he directed the statesman to begin with a sedate appreciation of human faults and

a specification to place them in the best possible use Concerning this matter Machiavelli

stated that men

68

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

are ungrateful fickle simulators and deceivers avoiders of danger and greedy for gain While you work for their benefit they are completely yours offering you their blood their property their lives and their sons as I said above when the need to do so is far away But when it draws nearer to you they turnaway(The Prince P58)

It means that he wanted to teach the governor to found his policies on the idea that men

in general are bad and not trustworthily

Human nature is deeply aggressive men are of endless desires by nature They want

to keep what they have in their hand and to gain more and more As a result men are in

constant conflict and rivalry which menace to cause endless chaos unless the force of the

law curbs it and that is why the power of the governor should be established on one fact

that safety can be there with a strong government Machiavelli particularly confirmed

that the first target of the successful government should be the safety of property and life

for being the most universal desires in human nature62 In The Prince he mentioned

that it was possible for a man to forgive his fathers slaughter but impossible to leave his

inheritance Machiavelli extended this idea in The Discourses saying that executions

should be reasonably few but confiscation none at all63

333 Machiavelli Religion Morality and the Concept of Power

Machiavellis theory was a sword which was plunged into the flank of the body

politic of western humanityhellip In this manner Friedrich Meinecke concluded

Machiavellis destructive impact on a world in which political actions should be in

complete harmony with the holy religious objectives It was unbelievable to separate

politics from the supervision of Christianity which always represented the best bond to

unite the men with the nations Meinecke blamed the Catholics and the Protestants for

permitting the rulers to trespass the limits of biblical morality64

Ian Adams and RW Dyson state that Machiavelli was not in concord with the

spiritual issues that stamped the features of the Middle Ages He is on the whole hostile

to Christianityhellip According to Machiavelli the sincere commitment of the people to

69

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

Christian virtues of obedience would not succeed in the cut-throat world of politics

His first concern was to found a state and to keep it powerful in order to be able to

confront both the internal and the external threats In The Prince Machiavelli

concentrated on how a prince could be always forceful over people In The Discourses

he emphasized how a stout and successful republic could be established65

Leo Strauss described Machiavelli as the teacher of evil for the reason that he taught

the governor how to favour the use of cruelty and fear rather than the use of love mercy

and foresight in dealing with his subjects66 Strauss used to defend the customary point of

view saying

In deed what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish topossess securely princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed but not those who are dead can think of revenge men forget the murder oftheir fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony true liberality consists in being stingy with ones own property and in being generous with what belongs to othershellip we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man67

The English writer Richard Hooker provides us with a succinct description of

Machiavellis point of view or religion as an ideology

A politic use of religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that religion itself is a mere politic device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually than by positive laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those laws have no further power than over our outward actions only whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts religion serveth for a bridle68

Politics was about obtaining and preserving power and nothing else Religion

morality etc ndash that people associate with politics has nothing to do with this

fundamental aspect of politics- unless being moral helps one get and keep power

70

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

Throughout the Renaissance Machiavellis disagreement to permit the moral judgments

to be considered in politics stamped him as an anti-Christ69

N D Arora believes that Machiavellis hatred of the papacy and the Church came as

a result of their bad role in planting discord among the Italians to the point that they

fought each other Machiavelli was not against Christianity or any other religion he was

a true Christian He always appreciated and respected religious men but he wished that

the papacy and the Church would try to limit their vitality to be directed to serve

education and religion Machiavellis aim was to separate politics form religion The

other-worldly phenomena should concentrate on other-worldly job He would not allow

religion to guide politics he would rather allow the state attain its ends with any or all

means possible Rousseau Arora mentions adopted the opinion that Machiavelli

instructed the people the reality about the rulers conduct rather than commemorating the

unethic His ideas did not instruct the ethics nor directed the princes to promote it70

Scott Erb maintains that there were resemblances between Plato and Machiavelli

Both of them beheld their state in dilemma but the difference between them was in the

rout that they used to deal with the crisis Plato chose the idealistic way whereas

Machiavelli chose the realistic way The state according to Machiavelli would not be in

need for a philosopher to be the head but for a strong governor who should know what

he had to do First of all he should learn not to be restricted by morality He had to have

the ability of using cunning cheating and cruelty whenever he would need71 The task

was the regularity of the state but not how ethics should be followed The Prince must

be a beast if necessary72 It was more significant for the ruler to be practical than to be

morally good The ruler should always think of the suitable way that would keep him

powerful It would be better for him to typify that he was virtuous without being actual

virtuous73

Machiavelli believed that the prosperity of a state depended on the cleverness of the

ruler in adopting processes that could be able to keep the state stable and strong

According to him there was no divine order of things set down by God which

establishes how states are to be operated Machiavelli used to behold the sovereignty

71

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

and power through the eyes of a scientist who always emphasized the path to the final

target regardless of religion and ethics74 Machiavellis Prince should be always ready to

be cruel and ready not to keep his word advice totally at odds with Erasmuss emphasis

on Christian virtue and justice 75

334 The Concept of the State

Machiavelli may not be a theorist of state but he did make a plea for the state He may not be a political philosopher in the sense Plato and Aristotle were before him or Hobbes Rousseau and Marx were after him but he had the insights of a political realist He might not have discussed theoretically the nature of the state but he did discus what a stable state could be or ought to be 76

In The Prince Machiavelli did not use the word Politico or its synonym at all The

noexistence of this word in the book which was ldquoattacked as the keystone of the new

science of politics was not strange The word politics and its equivalent would be fit

within a text in which the concentration of the discussion was on the city The Prince

was a treatise that dealt with the discussion on the state of the Prince and how this state

could be ruled and kept77

According to Machiavelli the term state was used to express dissimilar meanings

In many examples he used it to express the meaning of ldquothe preeminent status or the

regime of a prince (or a citizen or faction) Another example included the use of this

term to indicate the meaning of the territory over which a prince or a republic has

sovereignty Concerning this meaning Machiavellis reaction to the Cardinal of Rouen

included that the Italians could not control the war art whereas the French did not take

care of the state art Machiavelli wanted to say that the French had no knowledge about

the essential rule to be observed as a means to maintain their authority upon the

territories they occupied78

In The Prince Machiavelli used the word lsquostatersquo in the first sentence of the first

chapter He used it to indicate the organization of the greatest political power in the form

72

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

of republics or principalities The modern meaning given to this term by Machiavelli

during the Renaissance period became an important academic topic to be discussed79

Machiavellian state as named by Arora existed for its own entity it was of specific

order in which its security was restricted by the law but the only objection was that the

safety of the state had to be the highest value All the consideration should be put aside in

the case where the state was at stake no question of what was just or unjust merciful or

cruel the resolution should be taken to save the country and to keep its liberty The

reason of the state is the state for its own sakehellip the end is itself Machiavelli believed

in lay state It was true that he stood against the papacy and the Church but he was not a

foe of Christianity The matter was that Machiavellis concentration was not on religion

but on politics power and the unity of the state He tried to make religion serve politics

by directing the people to obey the laws and that is what would keep the stability of the

state80

335 The Concept of Virtue

Machiavellis vision of obtaining and keeping power was dominated by the term

virtursquo an Italian word The exact translation of this word into English is virtue and that

is what suggested morality and goodness But Machiavelli used this concept to mean

something else He used it to indicate specific personal characteristics of the Prince81 All

leading theorists of princely government on the one hand supported the notion that the

Prince who wished to keep his principality and to effect his aim of honour glory and

reputation had to posses the full range of Christian as well as moral virtues

Machiavelli on the other hand used to deny this conclusion He refused strongly the

common point of view that the best way to achieve the Princes objectives was to behave

in a conventionally virtuous way Machiavelli suggested that if the Prince had to act

virtuously he had not to forget to avoid as much as he can to act virtuously all times 82

According to him the Prince should represent that he was virtuous man but not to act

virtuously

73

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

To appear merciful faithful humane trustworthy religious and to be so but with his mind disposed in such a way that should it become necessary not to be so he will be able and know how to change to the oppositehellip a prince and especially the new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith against charity against humanity and against religion(The Prince P 61)

Machiavellis virtue was not moral one The princersquos virtue for Machiavelli could

be defined as an astonishingly creative force the key to maintaining his state and

enabling him to fight off his enemies83 Another definition was that virtue is a

particular kind of skill or aptitude combined of course with the will to use it84

336 The Forms of Governments

According to Machiavelli the governments were divided into two types republics

and principalities All states and all dominations that have had and continue to have

power over men have been and still are either republics or principalities (The Prince

P7) The prince was devoted to study monarchies I shall set aside any discussion of

republics because I have treated them at length elsewhere I shall consider solely the

principalitlyhellip (The Prince p7)The Discourses was purported to explain the structure

and benefits of a republichellip85

Of the two types of government Machiavellis ldquoown personal preference will always

be forhellip a Republican form of government86 Arora concludes that Machiavelli

preferred the republican form for the following reasons

1 The people as a whole were wiser than the Prince

2 They were in general no more vacillating than a prince

3 The adjustment of the people in the choice of the rulers was in general sound and

often unimpeachable This could not be the case in monarchies

4 The princedom could better establish and found a state the republic alone could

maintain it

74

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

5 The republics kept faith better than princes

6 The republics were better suited to changing conditions and circumstances of the

monarchies87

In monarchy the prince had unlimited power and that is why he was in a position

that enabled him to be the only man to stifle and if he is to survive must stifle-the

manly impulses of those entire subject to him It was quite the contrary in the republic

every man could be a prince and could improve and support his virtue for protecting the

personal freedom properties and honour In a monarchy Machiavelli said only one

man is free in a republic all are free Men in the republic helped each other knowing

that the collective effort was always better than that of anyone alone Republics would be

more settled than the monarchies more able to protect themselves and more prosperous

in expanding their regions during wars because they give it freer range and so produce

sturdy indomitable self-reliant individuals Republics could be constantly stable by

helping men to rival each other for the aim of creating without permitting anyone to get

extra power that could enable him to control the others88 Machiavellis essential

allegation according to Quentin Skinner was that if the people wanted to keep their

government away from being under the control of tyrannical individuals or groups they

had to build a system that the government remained in the grip of all people89

34 Machiavellis Legacy

Machiavellis Legacy can be elaborated by dealing with the terms Machiavel

Machiavellism and Machiavellian There is no doubt that all these terms were directly

associated with Machiavellis name suggesting bad opinion because of the principles of

behaviour presented by this political thinker especially in his shocking book The

Prince Each of these terms signified cunning manipulating and duplicity

Machiavel could be defined as a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and

Jacobean drama and named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli

whose notorious bookhellip (The Prince 1513) justified the use of dishonest means to retain

state power 90 Martin Gray defined Machiavel as in below

75

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

A Villainous STOCK CHARACTER in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama so called after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) author of The Prince (written 1513) a book of political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their own good and to preserve power91

In English literature Machiavelli was made almost synonymous with the Satan He

was linked with treason criminal acts atheism and different types of double-dealings

Characters in early modern English drama who saw that the moral and political stories

told by the powerful men in order to justify their status were no more than a cover for

their naked practicing of power and acted accordingly were called Machiavels The

doctrines of Machiavelli were understood as an advocate of deception and ruthlessness

for the sake of preserving power and government The sinister and unscrupulous villain

in tragedy of revenge of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama came to be named

Machiavels92

Machiavellism according to Nuttall Encyclopedia is

The doctrine taught by Machiavelli in The Prince that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort93

According to Steven Marx

Machiavellism refers to the outlook and behaviour praised by the Florentine political theorist and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli hellip primarily in his treatises ThePrince and The Discourses on Livy hellip Machiavellism proposes a revisionary morality in which the consolidation of political power in the state is regarded as the highest human good supplanting all other ethical values and constraints94

It means that keeping power would be the excuse that used to justify whatever the ruler

made cruelty cheating and alike would be allowed to achieve this dogma

76

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

Machiavellian was defined by J B Priestley as the term came to mean power-

mongering and plotting without that generous altruism that sound ethical basis claimed

by all politicians who know their business95 Machiavellian could also be defined as a

term that has come through the ages to mean evil doing what is politically expedient

rather than what is right96 Simply Machiavellian was a characteristic of behaviour in

different fields of life Anyone who believed or acted according to Machiavellis doctrine

who tried to justify the means even if dishonest by the aim he wanted to achieve could

be described as Machiavellian It is a fact that the term Machiavellian derived its name

originally from Machiavelli and it is true that the term suggested many bad qualities

such as cunning cruelty and alike but the question that one should find the suitable

answer for is was Machiavelli Machiavellian

In regard to the answer of this question one has to deal with two points of view

First Machiavelli was the most famous Machiavellian and his most Machiavellian book

was The Prince which was nourished by his personal experience and especially as a

diplomat Second believed that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian but he was

republican and patriotic and he was unfairly remembered as something that he was not

Reginald Pole regarded Machiavells doctrine as an essentially secret teaching

whose poison was spreading through Christendom The Prince for Pole was written

by Satan in the same sense in which Scripture was written by God It seemed that Pole

made great efforts to oppose Machiavelli and to see that his book The Prince was

banned Pole set his nephew Henry Huntington the task of tracking the translation of

many extracts of Osorios De Nobilitate (1542) which included the first published attack

against Machiavelli Another early attack on Machiavelli lancelotto Politi (De libris

christiano detestandis 1551) may have known Poles views for his own argument is

quite similar and that is what indicated that Poles anti-Machiavellian ideas had some

subsequent influence although that his Apologia remained unpublished in this century

the sixteenth century97

In his Anti-Machiavelli published in 1576 Innocent Gentillet attacked Machiavelli

as a result of the cynical advice given to rulers in The Princehellip This advice was the

77

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

essential cause that made Catherine de Medici commit the carnage of the Protestants on

St Bartholomews Day in 1572 Gentillets situation against Machiavelli was built upon

the idea that Machiavelli did not respect the title of individuals On the contrary he used

to prop up the unscrupulous class of ruling the Medici98

Machiavellis writings were widely republished disseminated and read even after

the decision of putting them on the index of banned books by the papacy in 1559 The

Prince was reviled by a huge array of critics including Frederick II the Prussian crown

prince who wrote a treatise named Anti-Machiavel in the middle of the eighteenth

century Even today one of the most habitual schools of interpretation concerning

Machiavelli drew this man as a teacher of evil and a supporter of tyranny who denied

the role of moral considerations in politics and realized the use of cruelty treason and

even violence as an important political techniques99

In their book Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth the Arabic critics

Ahmed Nasif and Majdi Kamil considered Machiavelli as Machiavellian for teaching

practical methods and procedures that enabled the ruler to gain and keep himself

powerful lifelong regardless religious recommendations and ethical considerations for

using Cesare Borgia as an example to be followed100

In this respect it was important to mention that Machiavelli met Cesar Borgia the

Duke of Valenteno during a diplomatic mission for the Florentine republic government

He spent the period from 7 October to 18 January 1503 at Borgias court as an

ambassador101 Machiavelli used Borgiarsquos act of treason and cruelty as an astonishing

example of how a young prince was able to gain power102 No ldquoone he met impressed

him more than Cesare Borgia 103 Machiavelli formulated his own theory of effective

government in The Prince He based his ideal prince on Cesare Borgias life and that is

why Alex Sharp states saying

Niccolo Machiavelli was not writing about his own ideas in The Prince Someone who is Machiavellian is really Borgian because The Prince is about Cesare Borgia who was a prince of the Catholic Church when he became a cardinal at age 18 only to resign from that position to become the first Duke of Valence104

78

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

Bertrand Russell maintained that Machiavellis admiration of Borgia was no more

than an admiration for the skills he had but not for his purposes The two things love of

skill and patriotic desire for Italian unity existed side by side in his mind and were not

in any degree synthesized105 Accordingly Machiavelli admired Borgia for his

cleverness and blamed him for having disrupted Italy

David K Fry agreed that Borgia was a cruel man and very much like the ideal prince

that is depicted in The Prince Machiavelli did not really admire his policies but he

believed that the Florentines could unite Italy with a leader like Cesare Borgia106 Fry

defended the idea that Machiavelli was not Machiavellian The Prince according to him

had been attacked as immoral treatise Machiavellism had come to be a dogma according

to which the means were justified by the end This view of Machiavelli was

unreasonable His republican beliefs were very clear in almost most of his writings In

The Prince he was emphasizing on monarchies rather than on republic It was correct

that The Prince was Machiavellis best known book but it was The Discourses which

drew the most about Machiavellis personality The Prince was just a short book written

hastily to obtain influence with the ruling family but TheDiscourses was a book in

which he tried to include his complete system of politics The main idea of The

Discourses was the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of

even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the peoplersquorsquo 107 and that is what

presented Machiavellis interest of common good

Another witness that Fry shows to support the idea that Machiavelli was not

Machiavellian is his love of liberty Machiavelli occupied a position in the republic

government of Florence He worked hard for the sake of maintaining the Florentine

republic and played an important role to form and command the militia for the task of

protecting it In 1512 when the republic had been fallen he was arrested and tortured

because of a supposed plot against the Medici In spite of being not trusted by the

Medici Machiavelli as a republican always tried to find a way to come back into

politics In The Prince Machiavelli embodied himself differently for the aim of

obtaining a post with the Medici and that is why his depiction as a supporter of corrupt

79

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favoured republicsrsquorsquo

Machiavellirsquos love for Italy is another evidence He spent most of his life time trying to

achieve the hope that he had for his country He was patriotic he was planning to reach

Italy to its full potential He did not support the Medici totalitarian government but he

tried to gain an occupation in this government for the aim of making it better108

In his book Machiavelli and Mystery of State Donaldson mentions that John

Wolfe the London printer who produced surreptitious editions of several of

Machiavellis major texts in the 1580s and Alberico Gentili the brilliant international

jurist who lived in England and was a professor of law at Oxford109 took as their task

the matter of rectifying the impression of Machiavelli in their time Both of them

believed that Machiavelli examined the subject of tyranny for the sake of opposing it

justifying this point of view by the idea that they found in the texts a republican

tendency They established their defence The Discourses rather than on The Prince

Gentilis defence was represented by a recommendation that ambassadors acquainted

themselves Machiavellis The Discourses for the aim of getting benefit of the political

and historical lessons Wolfes defence appeared as a preface to The Discourses at the

beginning of a volume which consisted of Machiavellis two major works The Prince

and The Discourses In their defence they emphasized -Machiavellis value as a guide

to the best way of drawing profit from the reading of history110

Cary J Nederman stated that if Machivelism embraced excessive opportunism under

the title of obtaining or keeping power for its own sake Machiavelli did not merit to be

painted with tar by the brush of his own name because he clearly expressed a stable

commitment to certain fixed belief about essential political value Machiavelli was

without doubt a convinced republican who held that there were good reasons-practical as

well as moral-for the institution of self-government in preference to princely regimes111

Guglielmo Ferrero insisted that the efforts of anyone who tried to find an entire

Machiavellian system within all of Machiavellis works would be in vain Machiavelli

explained his political doctrine in two books The Discourses contained no trace of

Machiavelism but consisted of ingenious ideas and advices on how to arrange a

80

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

republican government Machiavelli did not keep the doctrine that ethical considerations

took precedence and did not have also the contrary theory The pretended Machiavellism

originated in The Prince This was not to agree Ferrero said that it occurred in this little

book In order to comprehend this Paradox one should read this treatise carefully

without preconceptions One would find a short book on principalities full of good and

bad advices for princes of all ages The good advices were more abundant they were

easy to give than to follow The bad advices were more practical but less abundant112 It

was to be noted that Ferreros endeavor to defend Machiavelli was in vain because he

spontaneously confessed that there was Machiavelism in some of Machiavellis works

and specially in The Prince

Another defence was built upon the idea that whether Machiavelli was

Machiavellian or not could be examined by two ways Firstly did Machiavelli mean

accurately what he mentioned in The Prince As far as morality issues were involved

The Discourses embraced the clarity and divinity of his moral situations Secondly if

Machiavelli meant what he wrote did it mean that he helped the corrupt and totalitarian

rules in which the end justified the means Machiavelli was very patriotic his first dream

was to see united Italy Even he did not support the totalitarian government of the

Medici but he believed that by obtaining an occupation within this government he would

try to reform it and direct it to unite Italy113

Finally one has not to fear to conclude using the Arabic instance sun beam cannot

be veiled by a sieve Machiavelli was Machiavellian His condemnation is justified in

spite of all the pretexts presented by those who defend him Machiavelli must be

convicted not only for the reason that The Prince contains ethical and religious mistakes

but for including special trends that caused huge injury throughout several centuries It

becomes clear that the main aim of composing The Prince is to teach the princes or those

who are on their way to be princes how to govern their principalities by using the rod and

the scourge and how to be tyrants Although the word tyrant is not mentioned in

Machiavellis treatise all of his ideas suggest this word

81

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

Machiavelli was of high impact on Elizabethan drama in general and Christopher

Marlowe in particular Machiavellis influence was clearly reflected in the characters of

Marlowes heroes to the point that Marlowe was accused as responsible for introducing

Machiavelli to Elizabethan drama114 In his article Tragedy and Materialist Thought

Hugh Grady states that Shakespearean drama was more harmonious with Machiavellis

pragmatic philosophy than with received Christianity and particularly in his great

tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello Each of these plays ldquoin its own way posits a

universe indifferent to moral outcomes and a human world of autotelic power politics

and free-flowing identity-shifting subjectivity115 The following two chapters will be

dedicated to study in detail the influence of Machiavelli on the selected plays of Marlowe

and Shakespeare

82

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

Notes

1 _________ Niccolo Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei in

httpwwwradicalacademycomphilmachiavellihtm p1 of 7

2 Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy (London George Allen amp

Unwin Ltd 1946) p 465

3 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman (London Duncan

Baird Publishers Ltd 2007) p 8

4 C R Verma Studies in Literature (Delhi Doaba House 1998) p 565

5 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and ed Peter Bondanella (New York

Oxford University Press 2005) p ix Subsequence references will be to this

edition

6 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans and edTim Parks (New York Penguin

Books Ltd 2009) p viii

7 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli in

httpwwwkirjastoscifimacchiavehtm p 1 of 6

8 Jeremy Harwood Philosophy a Beginners Guide to the Ideas of 100 Great

Thinkers (UK Quercus nd) p 62

9 Robert Black Machiavelli servant of the Florentine republic in Machiavelli

And Republicanism eds Gisela Bock Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli

(New York Cambridge University Press 1990) p 71

10 ---------------- Niccolo Machiavelli Biography in

httppeoplebrandiesedu~teubermachiavellibiohtml pp 5-6 of 16

11 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanellaa pp x-xi

12 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney (London Arcturus

Publishing Limited 2008) p12

13 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought Vol 1 (New

York Cambridge University Press 1998) p174

14 Niccollo Machiavelli The Prince ed Anne Rooney p12

83

15 Joseph V Femia Maciavelli in Political Thinkers From Socrates to the

Present 2ed ed eds David Boucher and Paul Kelly (New York Oxford

University Press 2009) pp163-164

16 Maurizio Viroli Machiavelli Founders of Modern Political and Social

Thought (New York Oxford University Press 1998) p12

17 Ibid

18 __________ Niccolo Machiavelli in httpplatostanford

eduentriesmachiavelli p 3 of 22

19 David K Fray Niccolo Machiavelli in httpwwwctbwcomlubmanhtm

p 2 of 3

20 Bamber Gascoigne Niccolo Machiavelli p 3 of 6

21 Max Lerner Niccolo Machiavelli in httpwwwhistoryguide

orgintellectmachiavellihtml pp1-2 of 3

22 C R Verma p 565

23 Joseph V Femia p 164

24 _______Niccolo Machiavelli in httpplatostanfordeduemtriesmachiavelli

pp 2-3 of 22

25 George H Sabine and Thomas L Thorson A History of Political Theory (New

Delhi Oxford amp IBH Publishing Co Pvt Ltd 1973) p 317

26 __________ Discourses on Livy in httpenwikipediaorg wikiDiscourses-

on-Livy p 1 of 3

27 Ahmed Nassif and Majdi Kamil Machiavelli Shadow of the Devil on Earth

(Damascus Arabic Darkitab 2008) pp 27-28

28 Niccolo Machiavelli The Discourses trans Leslie J Walker ed Bernard

Crick (London Penguin Group 2003) p142 Subsequence references will be

to this edition

29 ___________ Discourses on Livy in http enwikipediaorgwikiDiscourses-

on-Livy p 1 of 3

84

30 __________Nicolo Machiavelli Criticism in httpwwwenotescomliterary-

criticismmachiavelli-nicollo p 2 of 6

31 __________ The Art of War (Machiavelli) in httpen

wikipediaorgwikiThe-Art-of-War-(Machiavelli) pp1-2 of 3

32 Niccolo Machiavelli The Art of War trans Henry Neville (New York Dover

Publications INC 2006) p 7 Subsequence references will be to this edition

33 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanella p xiii

34 Maurizio Viroli From Politics to Reason of State (New York Cambridge

University Press 1992) pp153-154

35 Count Carlo Sforza The Living Thoughts of Machiavelli (New Delhi Rupa

co 2002) p16

36 Bertrand Russell p 467

37 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Peter Bondanella p xiii

38 Count Carlo Sforza p 142

39 C R Verma p 566

40 _________Machiavellis The Prince in httpwwwemachiavellcomThe20

Prince20and520Machiavelli20with20Quotep 3 of 13

41 Jeremy Harwood p 62

42 Laurie E Maguire Studying Shakespeare A Guide to the Plays (USA

Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004) p88

43 ________Niccolo Machiavelli in httpplatostanfordeduentriesmachiavelli

p 2-3 of 22

44 Mikael Hornqvist Machiavelli and Empire (Cambridge Cambridge University

Press 2004) p 28

45 Maurizio Viroli p154

46 Man Bin Auss Al-Muzni Man Bin Aussrsquo Divan ed Noori Hamoodi and

Hatam Salih( Baghdad Dar Al-Jahidh 1977) p 36

85

47 Quentin Skinner Visions of Politics Vol 2 (Cambridge Cambridge University

Press 2002) p144

48 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought p 130

49 _________ The Prince in httpenwikipediorgwikiThe -Prince p 9 of 19

50 Ibid

51 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans George Bull ed Anthony Grafton

(New York Penguin Group 1999) p xxv

52 N D Arora Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination (New

Delhi the Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Limited 2010) p13 4

53 Ibid p13 5

54 Ibid

55 Ahmed Nassif and Majdi Kamil p 30

56 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince trans George Bull ed Anthony Grafton

pxvi

57 George H Sabine and Thomas L Thorson p 315

58 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Ann Rooney pp10-11

59 Ian Adams and RW Dyson Fifty Great Political Thinkers (London

Routledge 2007) p 39

60 Maurizo Viroli Machiavelli Founder of Modern Political and Social

Thought p 17

61 George H Sabine and Thomas L Thorson p 320

62 Ibid p 321

63 N D Arora p136

64 Joseph V Femia p 165

65 Ian Adams and RW Dyson p 39

66 N D Arora p1310

67 J H Bowden Thoughts on Machiavelli in

httpbowdenjhwordpresscom20100403thoughts-on-Machiavelli p3 of 4

86

68 Jonathan Dollimore Radical Tragedy 3rd ed (New York Palgrave Macmillan

2004) pp 12-13

69 Richard Hooker Machiavelli in httpwwwwsuedu80801-

deeRENMACHIAVHTM p3 of 6

70 N D Arora p1310

71 Scott Erb Machiavelli and Power Politics in httphuaumfmaineedu

Reading-RevoulutionsMachiavellihtml pp 3-4 of 10

72 Souvik Mukherjee The Devils Morals Ethics in Machiavellis The Prince in

httpwwwliterature-study-onlinecomessays machiavellihtml p 2 of 4

73 Alex Scott Machiavellis The Prince in httpwwwangelfirecommd2

timewarpmavhiavellihtml p 2 of 3

74 Ronnie Oldham Machiavellis The Prince A Modern Executive in

httpwwwpillowrockcom ronnie machiavelli htm pp 1-2 of 6

75 Siobhan Keenan Renaissance Literature (Edinburgh Edinburgh University

Press Ltd 2008) p10

76 N D Arora Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination p139

77 Maurizo Viroli pp128-129

78 Ibid p129-130

79 _________ The Prince in httpenwikipediorgwikiThe -Prince p 4 of 19

80 N D Arora p 139

81 ___________ Niccolo Machiavelli in httpplatostanford

eduentriesmachiavelli p 5 of 22

82 Quentin Skinner The Foundation of Modern Political Thought p 131

83 Ibid p125

84 Ian Adams and RW Dyson p 42

85 ___________ Discourses on Livy in http enwikipediaorgwikidiscourses-

on-livy p 1 of 3

86 Quentin Skinner The Foundations of Modern Political Thought p 124

87 N D Arora p136

87

88 Adams and RW Dyson pp 44-45

89 Quentin Skinner Visions of Politics p 163

90 Chris Baldick Dictionary of Literary Terms (New York Oxford University

Press 2008) p193

91 Martin Gray A Dictionary of Literary Terms (Inida Dorling Kindersley

2008) p166

92 Sean McEvoy Shakespeare the Basics (London Routledge nd) p200

93 _________Machiavellism in httpwwwfromoldbookorgwood-

NuttallEncyclopediammachiavellismhtm p1 of 1

94 Steven Marx Moses and Machiavellism in

httpclacalpoyedu~smarxpublicationsmoseshtml pp1-2 of 23

95 JB Priesstly Literature and Western Man (New York Harper and Brothers

1960) p16

96 ________Machiavellian Legacy in httpwwwepinionscomreview

Niccolo-Machiavelli-s-the-Prince-by-Niccolo-Machiavelli p 1 of 3

97 Peter S Donaldson Machiavelli and Mystery of State (New York Cambridge

University Press 1998) p 2 amp 7-8

98 Andrew Hadfield Shakespeare and Republicanism (New York Cambridge

University Press 2005) p 32

99 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman p 20

100 Ahmed Nassif and Majdi Kamil p 22

101 _________ Cesare Borgia in httpenwikikpediaorgwikiCesare-Brogia

pp1-3 of 7

102 __________The Prince in httpenwikipeidiaorgwikithe-prince p4 of 19

103 Claudia Roth Pierpont The Florentine in

httpwwwnewyorkercomartscriticsatlarge20080915080915crat-atlarge-

pierpont p 3 of 4

88

104 Alex Sharp Who Was Cesare Borgia Who was Machiavellis Prince in

httpwwwsuitelolcomcontentwho-was-cesare-borgia-meet-the-man-who-

was-machia p1 of 42

105 Bertrand Russell pp 467-468

106 David K Fry Niccolo Machiavelli in httpwwwctbwcomlubmanhtm p1

of 3

107 David K Fry Machiavelli Was Not Machiavellianrdquo in httpwwwitalian-

americancommachi2htm p1 of 3

108 Ibid p 2 of 3

109 Peter S Donaldson pp 86 amp 89

110 Ibid p 94

111 Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince ed Cary J Nederman p19

112 Guglielmo Ferrero Machiavelli and Machiavellism in

httpwwwjstororgpss20028942 pp 2-3 of 3

113 __________ Niccolo Machiavelli end justifies the means in

httpwwwoocitescomundertaker3x Machiavellihtm201021 pp 1-2 of 5

114 UM Ellis-Fermor The Jacobean Drama An Interpretation (London

Methuem and Co Ltd 1965) p11

115 Hugh Grady Tragedy and Materialist Thought in A Companion to Tragedy

ed Rebecca Bushnell (USA Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005) p140

89