L’arco tragico del Principe: Machiavelli e l’intrigo poetico

Abstract

This article elaborates on the possible connections between Machiavelli and Renaissance tragedy in the context of the early-modern rediscovery of Aristotle’s Poetics. The possibility of a tragic reading of Il Principe, in particular, focuses on the metaphor or simile of the ‘prudent archers’ (arcieri prudenti) in chapter vi, suggesting a pragmatic interpretation of the tragic ‘error’ (hamartia) in contrast to the moral correlation of character flaw and ‘ruin’ (ruina) that defines modern tragedy. A theory of the tragic ‘plot’ (intrigue) is based on internal structure and embedded, through intertextual references, in forms of historical and political realism that enable the circularity of tragedy and comedy. The case for a pragmatic and tragicomic interpretation is finally instrumental to disengaging the poetics of Il Principe from the framework of both moral tragedy and Machiavellism.