I. As we are about to treat in this discourse of the tyrannic doctrine
of Machiavel; I believe it will be agreeable to the greatest part of
our readers, to have some particular information respecting this man,
of whom all the world talks, and whom all the world detests; for by
whatever means men make themselves famous, they excite a curiosity to
know who and what they were.
II. Nicholas Machiavel, who was a native of Florence, lived in the
beginning of the sixteenth century, and was a man of more than middling
ingenuity. He wrote the Tuscan language with elegance and propriety,
although his knowledge of the Latin was but moderate. He had a good
genius for writing comic poetry, which he manifested in various pieces
which he wrote for the theatre; and more particularly in one of them,
that was represented at Florence with such great applause, that it
excited Pope Leo the tenth, as Paulus Jovius informs us, to cause it
to be acted at Rome by the same players, and with the same dresses and
decorations, with which it had been exhibited at Florence. When the
unhappy conspiracy against the family of the Medicis, was set on foot
by the Soderinis, Machiavel, who was impeached as an accomplice in
it, was put to the question by torture; but either his fortitude, or
his innocence, caused him to resist the rigour of that trial without
making the least confession. I do not know whether it was before, or
after this event, that he was made secretary to the republic, but it
is certain, that for the title of historian to it, which was conferred
on him together with a good salary, he was totally indebted to the
favour of the Medicis; but whether they did this from a conviction of
his innocence with respect to the late conspiracy, and were disposed to
recompence him by this honourable emolument, for the injury he suffered
in the torture; or whether they did it from considering him as an able
man whom they had a mind to keep under obligations to them, in order
to avail themselves of so good a pen as Machiavel’s in their favour;
I say, whichever of these motives they were actuated by, is not quite
certain.
III. The conferring this benefit on him, did not prevent new suspicions
being entertained of his fidelity, and of his having concurred in
another plot concerted by some private individuals, to take away the
life of cardinal Julius de Medicis, who afterwards ascended to the
popedom, by the name of Clement the seventh. This suspicion was founded
entirely, on the repeated applauses, with which both in his writings
and private conversations, he had celebrated Brutus and Cassius, as
the defenders and vindicators of the liberty of the Roman republic;
which at that time, was interpreted as an indirect exhortation to
the Florentines to defend their liberty, which the Medicis either in
reality or appearance, meditated to suppress. But with all this, either
from mere motives of policy, or because the suspicions seemed lightly
founded, no proceedings were had against Machiavel. It is confirmed
however, that after this time, he passed the remainder of his days in
misery and poverty. Perhaps the Medicis, who were secretly displeased
with him, thought it more adviseable, instead of bringing him to open
punishment, to accomplish their dark revenge, by occult ways and
means. It might also happen, that he brought himself to poverty by his
own misconduct; but, be this as it will, he hastened his death as many
other people have hastened theirs before him, by taking a precautionary
medicine to prolong his life, which instead of lengthening, shortened
it, and brought him to an untimely end in the year 1530.
IV. Machiavel was of a jocose and satyrical disposition, and was
believed to have little or no religion. There are some who say, that
when he was near dying, they were under a necessity of employing
the authority of the civil magistrate to oblige him to receive the
sacraments. We read in many authors, a wanton and insolent impiety of
his, under the colour of a joke; that is, his having said, that he had
much rather go to hell than heaven; because in heaven he should only
meet with fryars, mendicants, and other miserable and groveling people;
but that in hell, he should enjoy the company of popes, cardinals,
and princes, with whom he could converse of state affairs. Others
substitute, for his saying popes, cardinals, and princes, the most
eminent philosophers and political writers, such as Plato, Aristotle,
Plutarch, and Tacitus.
V. He published a variety of books, and among them, the life of
Castrucius Castracani, and the history of Florence, which do not obtain
the greatest credit with the critics. But the work that made him
jointly the most famous and infamous man in the world, was a political
tract, intituled, “The Prince;” in which he teaches and recommends to
all sovereigns, to reign tyrannically, and to govern their people,
without regarding either equity, law, or religion, but sacrificing them
all three, together with the public good, to his interest, his will,
his caprice, and his own particular grandeur.