SOURCE: Paolucci, Henry. “Translator's Introduction.” In Mandragola, pp. vii-xv. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1957.

In the following essay, Paolucci discusses how the characters in Mandragola exemplify Machiavelli's philosophy.

Machiavelli's Mandragola, for centuries half-hidden from view in the shadow of The Prince, has only lately begun to receive adequate recognition as what it unquestionably is: the unrivaled masterpiece of the Italian comic theater. Carlo Goldoni, the eighteenth-century author traditionally honored as Italy's foremost comic playwright, will, no doubt, because of the mere quantity of good work he produced, continue to be so honored; nevertheless, the best Italian critics today are inclined to uphold the judgment of T. B. Macaulay that the Mandragola “is superior to the best of Goldoni and inferior only to the best of Molière.”¹ They agree that no one work of Goldoni rises to the level of dramatic perfection of the Mandragola. They recognize also...