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The Significance of Lucrezia in Machiavelli's La Mandragola

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Susan Behuniak-Long
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Extract

The “fall” of Lucrezia in Machiavelli's play La Mandragola is a puzzlement. She is presented as an intelligent and virtuous wife who by play's end not only agrees to commit adultery but murder as well. Any attempt to interpret the play must address the significance of Lucrezia and her fall. It is argued here, however, that the real deception is that Lucrezia does not undergo a conversion—she is of questionable character from the start. Upon examination, her similarity with the Goddess Fortuna reveals a deeper tale being told within the play. Machiavelh uses her to mock the Church, and St. Augustine in particular, and to deliver a frightening message that the free will is no match for the goddess.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , Spring 1989 , pp. 264 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1989

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References

I am indebted to Charles D. Tarlton for sharing his ideas and resources, and to Michael C. O'Neill for introducing me to the theater arts.

I have used the following sources and translations of Machiavelli's works: La Mandragola, trans. Mera Flaumenhaft (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1981); “Capitoli di Fortuna,” trans. Joseph Tusiani in Lust and Liberty (New York: Ivan Obolensky, Inc., 1963); The Prince, trans. Luigi Ricci (Mentor Book, 1952); and The Discourses, trans. Luigi Ricci (New York: Random House, 1950). In addition, I used Livy's From the Founding of the City, trans. B. O. Foster (London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1919), and St. Augustine's City of God, trans. Marcus Dods (New York: Random House, Inc., 1950). Numbers within parentheses indicate the page number of the appropriate text.

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