|
|
"The Machiavel"
- Derived from Niccolo Machiavelli's
The Prince (1513), in which Machiavelli argues that a monarch
should know how to be deceitful when it suits his purpose, though he
cannot appear to be so. He must always exhibit five virtues in particular:
mercy, honesty, humaneness, uprightness, and religiousness. Machiavelli
argues that the prince must avoid doing things which will cause him
to be hated. This is accomplished by not confiscating property, and
not appearing greedy or wishy-washy. In fact, the best way to avoid
being overthrown is to avoid being hated.
- The sixteenth-century distortion
of the principles set forth in Machiavelli's The Prince allowed
for the creation of a particular character type: the Machiavel. The
Machiavel is a character who acts on immoral advice to lie, cheat ,
and murder under the cover of hypocritical professions of virtue and
piety.
- Richard III's instances of playing
the Machiavel:
- "But I, that am not shaped
for sportive tricks / Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass"
(I.i. ll. 14-5)
- "My dukedom to a beggarly
denier, / I do mistake my person all this while / Upon my life she
finds, although I cannot, / Myself to be a marv'lous proper man.
/ I'll be at charges for a looking-glass / And entertain a score
or two of tailors / To study fashions to adorn my body." (I.ii
ll. 238-44)
- To Buckingham:
Come, cousin, canst thou quake
and change thy colour?
Murder thy breath in the middle of a word?
And then again begin, and stop again,
As if thou wert distraught and mad with terror? (III.v ll. 1-4)
|
