Machiavelli's The Prince has been translated several times, and several of these translations have been often reprinted and remain in print, in paperback:  

        Like many of the great writers studied in Humanities 2001 and 2002, Machiavelli has in his famous work contributed a word or expression to the English language: in this instance, the adjective Machiavellian.  Look this word up in a collegiate dictionary to see how Machiavelli and The Prince were interpreted, as indicated by the meaning of Machiavellian.

        Composition, Distribution, Publication of Machiavelli's The Prince

        Most scholars of Machiavelli's work, based on a letter in which Machiavelli refers to the work, think that The Prince was composed in 1513-1514.  However, changes involving the persons to whom Machiavelli wanted to dedicate the work (also affecting Machiavelli's chances for reinstatement to the inner circles of political power, from which he had been exiled) apparently negated any urgency Machiavelli felt to get the work published, so that it was not published until five years after his death (1532; Machiavelli died in 1527). As often the case with Renaissance writings, the work was circulated in handwritten form among a coterie of readers, prior to or in addition to publication by the printing press. Christian Gauss in his introduction (1952) to the Luigi Ricci & E.R. P. Vincent translation (1903, 1935) says "It is certain that The Prince was circulated in manuscript" (p. 11), while Stephen Milner (1995) notes that the work was "widely circulated in manuscript form and translated into Latin" (xxvi) prior to publication.

        Prose Style of Machiavelli's The Prince

        An oddity of the work is that in his well-known letter mentioning it Machiavelli refers to the title in Latin, and Latin is used for the titles of the chapters, though the chapters themselves are composed in Italian. Robert Adams in the introduction to his translation (1992) notes that Machiavelli also can be seen "using occasional Latin words in his text, above all when defining logical relationships. Praeteria, in exemplis, tamen, quodam, modo, and so forth -- they give the treatise a slightly dry and schoolmasterish tonality. At the same time, Machiavelli is not above slang and popular metaphors" (p. xviii). In their translation published by Oxford World's Classics (1984 and rpt.), Bondanella and Musa note that Machiavelli's prose style sometimes utilizes lengthy sentences: "While many recent translators of The Prince have felt it necessary to shorten Machiavelli's ample periods [= long clauses and sentences] in an attempt to simplify the text and to make it more attractive to contemporary readers, we have remained faithful, insofar as possible, to Machiavelli's more complex sentence structure" (p. xvii). In his translation (1981), George Bull refers to the sometimes "impressive rhetoric" (p. 25) of Machiavelli's style; Mark Musa in his translation (1964) states "I have not broken his long and often involved sentences into a number of shorter ones, for Machiavelli develops and extends an idea in the course of a sentence, juxtaposing not only important words but also phrases and entire clauses, sometimes for dramatic effect and sometimes for didactic reasons" (xv-xvi). R.M. Adams in his translation (1992) notes about Machiavelli's style that "it is not of a piece throughout . . . There are . . . epigrams and aphorisms with the brief, cruel point of a stiletto; there are also, and more characteristically, complex sentences [with] modifiers, laden with subordinate clauses, and serpentine in their length. Machiavelli likes to balance concepts and phrases, to build the structure of his thought out of elegantly juxtaposed contrasts, and to draw out the tenor of his thought through a long, linked, circumstantial sentence" (xvii).  Likewise, A. Robert Caponigri notes in the Preface to his translation (1963) that Machiavelli's "style is a complex one, wholly reflecting the diverse formation and experiences, mentality, and intentions of the man himself. It is a 'tough' style: direct, concrete, unadorned; marked by involutions designed to carry nuances of thought and reference; sinewy and masuculine, in places even rough and earthy. It is also capable of elegances and even of strong . . . imagery," (p. vi) . In addition, James Atkinson (1976) and Quentin Skinner and Russell Price (1988) have also noted in introductions to their translations that an important element of Machiavelli's prose style is use of figurative language.

        Machiavelli's The Prince and the Visual Arts

        A few scholar-translators have observed connections between Machiavelli's The Prince and the Renaissance visual arts. James Atkinson (1976) says that "in the final analysis Machiavelli's style and method fuse to foster an aim not dissimilar to that of many sixteenth-century painters who were soon to alter the direction of Italian art. As the Mannerist painters lengthened an arm here, contorted a posture there, so Machiavelli twists and distorts historical figures and events to make them conform to his own view of 'reality.' Thus Machiavelli exaggerates his method and style because he is confident that he has the right to impose his vision of order on his readers. He is not  . . . embarrassed by distortion or alteration, because these devices shock sensibilities that are accustomed to time-honored frameworks and styles for representing similar material. Also like the Mannerist painters, he resorts to attention-getting effects that immediately involve the audience in the material represented. But he achieves his drama differently: his method is one of selective understatement rather than of dramatic highlighting" (p. 85). David Wooton (1994) observes that "both of Machiavelli's major works, The Prince and the Discourses, begin with references to [visual] artists, and Machiavelli clearly believes there is a point of comparison between his own science of politics and the [visual] art of his day. The Prince begins with Machiavelli comparing himself to an artist painting a landscape in which mountains rise from the plain: only from a distance can you see the shapes and forms of the land. Machiavelli is writing almost a century after the discovery of perspective, and Machiavelli's artist is painting depth and distance. One should compare the painting of Machiavelli's own day with Machiavelli's insistence that he does not want to write an ornamental decorative prose; instead, he wants to portray the facts as they are. Just as one looks into a Renaissance painting, seeing a world one feels one could step into and move about in, rather than regarding the painting as a decorative surface, so Machiavelli wants you to think of his books as windows on the world of politics" (p. xxxiii).  A connection with the visual arts is implied in P.M. Pasinetti's introduction to Machiavelli in the NAWM in his comments about the combination of realistic (or naturalistic) detail with idealizing -- what Pasinetti refers to as "the well-known Renaissance tendency toward 'perfected' form."  These two components -- naturalistic detail, idealizing -- may be found in painting and sculpture of the Renaissance.

        Further, Machiavelli himself is embodied in the visual arts. An intriguing and celebrated Renaissance portrait painting of Machiavelli was done by Santi Di Tito (or the studio of Santi Di Tito). A side view portrait was painted by Renaissance artist Cristofano. Contemporary sculptures of Machiavelli included a wood bust, a polychrome wood torso, and a stone statue. A later tribute statue can be found in the art museum of Florence. Machiavelli's tomb in Santa Croce is also an interesting visual arts piece.

        Questions on Machiavelli's The Prince

        As with other prose selections in the textbook, in order to understand the following notes and questions, number every fifth paragraph (as signaled by paragraph indention), starting over for each new chapter. All selections are complete (NAWM is wrong in using the word "From" for the chapter titles, indicating, incorrectly, that abridgements have been made), and so each chapter (indicated by the footnotes to the titles given by the editor) begins with paragraph 1.

General

MP-G1. In what sense does Machiavelli, following other Renaissance writers and thinkers (e.g., Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned 1558-1603 and referred to herself as a "prince"), apply the word prince in the title of his work The Prince, that is different from the usual modern meaning of the non-reigning heir to the throne? (Look up the word in your collegiate dictionary, including the etymology of the word -- the material found in square brackets at the beginning or the end of the entry, depending on the collegiate dictionary.)

MP-G2. (a) As in Dante's Inferno, how are aspects of Classical (Greco-Roman) traditions and culture combined with Judeo-Christian traditions and culture in the selections from Machiavelli's The Prince? (b) What interesting connection has Machiavelli's nonfiction treatise, including the specific selections in NAWM, with Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale, lines 123-54 (Morrison translation)?

MP-G3. (a) How does the Wheel of Fortune idea occur in Machiavelli's work? (b) How does this concept compare or contrast with its occurrence in Chaucer's Nuns' Priest's Tale and Castiglione's The Courtier? (c) How may this concept be seen in Voltaire's Candide?

MP-G4. How is the whole purpose of Machiavelli's The Prince (including the NAWM selections) related to the Renaissance fine arts components of rest and repose (in contrast to the differing features of the Baroque)?

MP-G5. (a) In this work, what importance is placed on human intellect and reason? How so? (b) How does question 5a help place Machiavelli's The Prince in the Renaissance rather than medieval era? In the selections in NAWM, what discussion or comment is there about relying on faith or God in dealing with politics or human affairs? (c) How does 5a help show the connection of the work with the Classical literature of Greece and Rome?

MP-G6. Most students in English (1)101 courses think that style and composition handbook material comprise merely a system of traps that need to be avoided to keep English teachers off their backs. In fact, grammar, usage, style, and composition handbook material, all have derived from the users of the language, who apply this material for the sole purpose of language: to express and communicate. The prose style of Machiavelli, like the styles of all other literary authors, has several distinctive features that are related to his purposes and themes. In the following questions, technical terms should be looked up in a collegiate composition handbook or collegiate dictionary (or both). (a) In what sentences in Chs. 15-18 and 25 does Machiavelli use antithesis? How does Machiavelli's repeated use of antithesis relate to Machiavelli's view of the Prince's behavior or conduct as a series of choices among series of opposites? Of sometimes having to strike a middle course? What was the famous term and concept in Greco-Roman thought and art that referred to an ideal middle course? With what components of Renaissance fine arts (visual art, music) might the use of antithesis connect? (b) In what sentences of the work does Machiavelli use parallelism and balance (as in balanced sentences)? How does Machiavelli's repeated use of parallelism and balance relate to his view of what the Prince must do, how he must act, and what qualities he should have? How do the stylistic components relate to the theme of moderation? (c) How does Machiavelli tend to use hypotaxis rather than parataxis, as a structural, stylistic element? How does this stylistic device connect to Machiavelli's purpose or purposes in writing, as well as the genre of his writing? How does this stylistic device connect Machiavelli with his era, the Renaissance? (d1) In the NAWM excerpts, where does Machiavelli use for thematic or expressive purposes long sentences? (d2) In the NAWM excerpts, where does Machiavelli use for thematic or expressive purposes short sentences? (e) How do Machiavelli's repeated words name, call (verb), thought (verb), and seem or seems etc., relate to a crucial component both of politics and advertising? (e) How do the items in MP-G6d, including the words (and concept in) seem or seems connect with Shakespeare's Hamlet and the portrayal of the court and politics in the Renaissance? (f) Where does Machiavelli use figurative language, metaphors, similes, or symbols to convey meaning in the NAWM selections from this nonfiction work?

MP-G7. (a) An important Renaissance portrait bust and Renaissance portrait painting of Machiavelli are extant. How do the sculpture and painting compare and contrast? In the oil portrait of Machiavelli, what traits of the author are suggested through the painting's composition, the subject's expression, the colors, etc.?  (b) Important artistic portraits of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, to whom Machiavelli's The Prince is dedicated include those by Michelangelo, a sculpture in the Chapel of the Medici in the Church of San Lorenzo, in Florence, and an oil painting, Portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici in Armor (c. 1545) by Angelo Bronzino. How do the sculpture and painting compare and contrast? Does either artistic rendering suggest any connections to Machiavelli's The Prince?  (Other views of Michelangelo's sculpture of Lorenzo: View 1;  View 2;  View 3;  View 4;  View 5.)  (c) A really interesting oil-painting portrait of Machiavelli makes interesting speculation about connections between the author and the work; see reproduction #1 or reproduction #2 of the painting.

MP-G8.  More than two dozen translations into English of Machiavelli's The Prince have appeared from the seventeenth century up to the present day. In the translation by Allan Gilbert, used in the NAWM, the contents of the complete work are as follows: Dedication; Ch.1: The Various Kinds of Principates and How They Are Gained; Ch. 2: On Hereditary Principates; Ch. 3: On Mixed Principates; Ch. 4: Why the Kingdom of Darius Which Alexander Occupied Did Not Break Away from His Successors after the Death of Alexander; Ch. 5: The Method of Administering States and Princedoms That, Before They Were Occupied, Lived According to Their Own Laws; Ch. 6: On New Principates That Are Gained by Vigorous Use of One's Own Armies; Ch. 7: On New Principates That Are Obtained through the Military Power of Others and from Fortune; Ch. 8: On Those Who Attain Princely Power through Evil Deeds; Ch. 9: On Civic Principality; Ch. 10: In What Way the Strength of All the Kinds of Princely Government Ought to Be Estimated; Ch. 11: On the Principalities of Churchmen; Ch. 12: The Various Kinds of Soldiers, and Especially Mercenaries; Ch. 13: On Soldiers That Are Auxiliary, Mixed, and a Ruler's Own; Ch. 14: How a Prince Should Act about Military Matters; Ch. 15: On the Things for Which Men, and Especially Princes, Are Praised or Censured; Ch. 16: On Liberality and Parsimony; Ch. 17: On Cruelty and Pity, and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved or to Be Feared, and Vice Versa; Ch. 18: In What Way Faith Should Be Kept by Princes; Ch. 19: On Avoiding Contempt and Hatred; Ch. 20: Whether Fortresses and Other Things That Princes Employ Every Day Are Useful or Useless; Ch. 21: What Is Necessary to a Prince That He May Be Considered Excellent; Ch. 22: On the Confidential Servants of Princes; Ch. 23: In What Way Flatterers Are to Be Avoided; Ch. 24: Why the Princes of Italy Have Lost Their Authority; Ch. 25: The Power of Fortune in Human Affairs and to What Extent She Should Be Relied on; Ch. 26: An Exhortation to Take Hold of Italy and Restore Her to Liberty from the Barbarians.
 
Ch. 15

MP-C15-1. With what stylistic component does Machiavelli contrast virtues and vices in this chapter? What examples can you find?

MP-C15-2. With what stylistic component does Machiavelli repeatedly contrast the theoretical and the actual (or practical, pragmatic, skeptical)? What examples can you find?

MP-C15-3. How does Machiavelli allude to Plato's famous work The Republic in paragraph 1? Of what, for Machiavelli, is Plato's work an example?
 
Ch. 16

MP-C16-1. (a) How does the stylistic feature of hypotaxis show in Machiavelli's repeated words like hence, so, since, therefore, and then in this chapter? (b) Where are these hypotactic words often positioned in the sentence? (c) How does Machiavelli's hypotaxis relate to any of his main purposes in this nonfiction treatise?

MP-C16-2. What does Machiavelli's repeated use of the conjunction if show about his purpose or purposes in the work?

MP-C16-3. How does Machiavelli vividly use dramatization (pointed out by P.M. Pasinetti, editor of the Renaissance section in NAWM) in paragraph 3?

MP-C16-4. How is there truth today in the application of Machiavelli's remarks in this chapter about politicians' relation to constituents on the issues of "liberality" or "parsimony"?

MP-C16-5. (a) How does the Renaissance emphasis on the physical or material, not just the spiritual or metaphysical, manifest itself in this chapter? (b) How is Machiavelli a materialist in any important way in this chapter or other chapters?
 
Ch.17

MP-C17-1. (a) In his reference in the first paragraph to "the name of cruel," how does Machiavelli show an awareness of the problems of what some today might call "PR" (public perception, image, public relations)? (b) How does the concept of appearance versus reality bear on this point?

MP-C17-2. What pessimistic definitions of humanity can be found in paragraphs 3-4 of this chapter?
 
Ch. 18

MP-C18-1. (a) What is the meaning of Machiavelli's analogy or figurative language comparing a human being to a Centaur, a creature half human being and half beast? (b) How might Machiavelli's analogy be applicable to people today?

MP-C18-2. (a) What ideas are conveyed by Machiavelli's extended animal imagery of the qualities needed by the Prince being those of the fox and lion? (b) How is Machiavelli's notion applicable to politicians and leaders today?

MP-C18-3. (a) How is the concept of appearance versus reality manifested in the penultimate sentence of paragraph 3, the first and second sentences of paragraph 5, and throughout paragraph 6? (b) What stylistic feature does Machiavelli use to help describe or portray this duality?
 
Ch. 25

MP-C25-1. What ideas are suggested by Machiavelli's extended metaphor of Fortune as a raging river (par. 2)?

MP-C25-2. What foreshadowing to Machiavelli's discussion of Fortune in Ch. 25 can be found in this chapter (par. 5)?

MP-C25-3. (a) What terribly pessimistic idea about the stability of the leader and leadership in the state, with reference to time, is conveyed in this chapter, as related to the rigidity of human mind, human intellect, human personality, human temperament, and human behavior? (b) How does Machiavelli's pessimism relate to the fox and lion imagery in Ch. 18? (c) How is Machiavelli's pessimism related to the modern psychological concept of "mind set"? (d) How are Machiavelli's conceptions on this point applicable today?
 
Ch. 26

MP-C26-1. How does the impressive length of the first and third sentences of the first paragraph help express their content? (All the details could, of course, be conveyed in several shorter sentences; so, why include them all in one sentence?)

MP-C26-2. How does Machiavelli's religious or Christian Humanism show in the first two paragraphs of this chapter?

MP-C26-3. Ultimately, how does Machiavelli define the ideal leader in this chapter?