SOURCE: Ruffo-Fiore, Silvia. “Machiavelli's Dramatic and Literary Art.” In Niccolò Machiavelli, pp. 107–20. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982.

In the following excerpted essay, Ruffo-Fiore discusses Machiavelli's approach to the theater.

Dating, Manuscripts, Editions, and Performance of Mandragola

Although the action of the Mandragola occurs in 1504 (I, 1), its composition date remains controversial. Various dates have been cited by Tiraboschi (1498), Villari and Tommasini (1512-20), Renaudet (1523), Colimore (1504-12), and Ridolfi (January-February 1518). Ridolfi's speculations, having recently gained widest acceptance, are based on two points. First, in III, 3 the old woman who briefly converses with Fra Timoteo fearfully questions, “Do you believe the turk is coming over into Italy this year?”¹ Ridolfi argues that this popular fear, which probably began after Turkish capture of Otranto in 1480, was alleviated from 1504 to 1517 by the truce between the Venetians and Sultan Bajazeth II. It intensified in the early months of 1518 when the Turks resumed their attacks on Italy.² Second...