Machiavelli as a dramatist

Niccolò Machiavelli started work with the Chancery in Florence at the age of 29, traveling on diplomatic missions around Europe. In the 14 years he served the Chancery, he met great statesmen and politicians, including Louis XII, Emperor Maximilian and Cesare Borgia, and gained great insight into the political workings of Europe. He gave Florentine generals successful military advice concerning tactics and organizing infantry forces. He even established a Florentine militia. When the Medici come back into power in 1512, Machiavelli was arrested, tortured and exiled from Florence.

Machiavelli, having lost the one vocation he understood, turned to writing, the closest thing to being in office he could now experience. In his writing he drew off his years of experience and understanding of the working of a successful ‘prince.’The Prince, published in 1513, was a (possibly satirical) how-to book on securing and maintaining political power. It outlined how one could discourage political activism and keep the leader in power. He encouraged his readers to respect private property and traditions and to use violence prudently. He did not censor his occasional inhumane methods and was entirely honest in his political advice, earning him a villainous reputation. In his work he talked about the use of trickery and greed and how the ends justify the means.

Machiavelli recommends, "one must know how to color one's actions and be a great liar and deceiver." He has concludes that "… it is a general rule about men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, liars and deceivers, fearful of danger and greedy for gain." He states that a prince who acts virtuously will soon come to his end in a sea of people who are not virtuous themselves. Thus the successful prince must be dishonest and immoral when it suits him. He states that "…we see from recent experience that those princes have accomplished most who paid little heed to keeping their promises, but who knew how to manipulate the minds of men craftily. In the end, they won out over those who tried to act honestly." Machiavelli does not condone untrustworthy actions but he understands it as the best way to hold on to power.

Machiavelli emphasizes the point that the ends justify the means when the stability and prosperity of the state are in question. He states that a prince should be able to obtain peace and order no matter the cost because a stable and prosperous country will always benefit the majority. Machiavelli uses the example of Agathocles the Sicilian. Agathocles had the entire senate of Syracuse killed in order to seize control of the government. Machiavelli admits that this is a way to gain power, but whether this cruelty was justified depends upon what Agathocles did with it. If he used his new power to bring wealth and success to Syracuse then he would have done well, but if Syracuse suffered under his rule, his murders would not have been justified. Thus by Machiavelli's logic the ends can justify the means.

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