SOURCE: Barber, Joseph A. “The Irony of Lucrezia: Machiavelli's Donna di virtù.” Studies in Philology 82, no. 4 (fall 1985): 450–59.

In the following essay, Barber discusses the various interpretations of Mandragola.

In spite of all the critical literature that has been written about Machiavelli's Mandragola, there remain a number of interpretive questions that merit further discussion. The comedy has elicited a wide range of interpretations, with some views quite diverse from what might be termed the traditional reading of the play.¹ By far the majority of the readings develop a hypothesis about the relationship between Machiavelli's excursion into the realm of theater and his more serious political and historical writings. Along this line of inquiry, it will be worthwhile to examine the parallel stories of Callimaco and Lucrezia in the Mandragola. As we note the similarity of the paths that the lives of these two characters follow, and the critical points...