SOURCE: Mansfield, Harvey C. “The Cuckold in Machiavelli's Mandragola.” In The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli: Essays on the Literary Works, edited by Vickie B. Sullivan, pp. 1–29. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.

In the following essay, Mansfield explores the role of the cuckold in Mandragola, who is a willing victim to gain his own ends—progeny.

The Mandragola makes for a good introduction to Machiavelli. By reading the Mandragola ahead of his political works one could become acquainted with his comic and his erotic aspect, his appreciation of the nonpolitical, so that one could look for it in his politics. The levity, the double meanings, even the dirty jokes and blasphemies that run rampant in the Mandragola are also present, less obviously, in The Prince and the Discourses on Livy, in which they reflect his desire to treat respectable political ideas and institutions “without any respect” (sanza alcuno...