The Democratization of Desire in Machiavelli’s “Mandragola”

• In Event: The Spectacle of Privilege in Machiavelli’s "Mandragola"

Abstract

The privilege of political elites has provoked critics throughout the history of political thought. Famously, Machiavelli is one such critic of elite privilege whose work furthermore theorizes a fundamentally equal human nature. Today, Machiavelli’s view of human equality has been revivified by political theorists attempting to recover democratic elements of his work—like the inclusion of the people in republican political institutions designed to channel class conflict—in the face of contemporary inequality (e.g., McCormick 2011). However, Machiavelli’s wildly popular comedic masterpiece, “Mandragola” (1518), has not yet been similarly analyzed for its own trenchant critique of elite privilege on the basis of common human nature. This is my aim in offering a democratic reading of Machiavelli’s most theoretically important play. For, just like classical antecedents (viz., Terence and Plautus), Italian Renaissance comedy is mimetic and, thus, democratic in representing ordinary life, common social types, and authentic speech or customs (see Saxonhouse 2000). One theoretical affordance of this democratic approach to comedy is to posit that which is especially ordinary or common about human nature. Whereas political theorists have picked up on the democratic elements in descriptions of political figures in Machiavelli’s other works, I turn to the protagonist of “Mandragola,” Callimaco, to do something similar in a way that resonates with Machiavelli’s political theory more broadly. To that end, I claim Callimaco exemplifies the desire that is a common element of human nature for Machiavelli. Furthermore, through Callimaco, Machiavelli shows how even common people can exhibit laudable traits and ingenuity when it comes to getting what they want. In doing so, through the action of the play, the hypocrisy of elite pretensions to superiority by other characters are simultaneously exposed for ridicule, since all humans, ultimately, share the same nature.

Author

• Katherine M. Robiadek, Boston University