Fortuna and the Landscape of Action in Machiavelli’s Prince Charles D. Tarlton (bio) Landscape crucially consists in an extent of seeing, not just the woods and hills and river-bendings themselves, but a delimited range of such things, as perceived from some certain point of view. Landscape, as distinguished from the topography (itself an idealization in any event), is constituted by interest. A term of art, landscape depicts an opportunity of view, an opening upon some world as much theatrical as arboreal, but as likely to be the anticipation of battle as the slowly forming pastoral sketch on an outdoor easel. There is also, in landscape, the promise of action; landscape gives us scene, and, as Kenneth Burke said, “From the motivational point of view, there is implicit in the quality of a scene the quality of the action that is to take place within it.” 1 Landscape suggests a human attitude, the angle of one who has taken up just this position, adopted just this point of view, and attitude is already a kind of action. As point of view, landscape also implies multiplicity, as many possible scenes from the one “topography” as there are viewers. And, consequentially, “landscapes” can be contested, seen differently from different angles and in different eyes, interpreted through different interests. Two princes, two generals are poised strategically across some deep valley from one another, appraising the site of contest. They stand before their respective scenes, contemplating just those actions they can imagine doing among the contingencies most visible in the prism of the interest through which they are viewing it. For each, the other is there in the view of the landscape. For each, the other is part of the situation. And that “for each” is crucially said: there is no single position, no one opportunity of vision, no one outlook. Vantage point is everything, and everywhere is some vantage point or other. Every situation is, like the landscape, appreciated from some distinct point of view. And later we shall see, fortuna, well, fortuna is just one’s—situation. [End Page 737] I Nor I hope will it be considered presumptuous for a man of low and humble status to dare discuss and lay down the law about how princes should rule; because, just as men who are sketching the landscape put themselves down in the plain to study the nature of the mountains and the highlands, and to study the low-lying land they put themselves high on the mountains, so, to comprehend fully the nature of the people, one must be a prince, and to comprehend fully the nature of princes one must be an ordinary citizen. 2 These two, Niccolò Machiavelli and “Lorenzo de’ Medici” (the name of some other, the reader, or perhaps even Machiavelli’s double, the writer in the contortion of self-observing), the one “from your lofty peak,” the other “down to these low-lying regions” (P 2), are, then, prince (how much textual ambiguity is compressed in here?) and ordinary citizen, afterwards further separated by the plain (plane?) geography of fortuna; the one is up, the other down, for now. Each represents the geographical position from which the other is to be comprehended and appraised. What was “una grande e continua malignità di fortuna” for the one, was “solamente per fortuna,” for the other (P 14, 33). Machiavelli had been the “loser” of exactly the same Battle at Ravenna and its consequences, by which the Medici (and Lorenzo) had been returned to power in Florence. Not only was Machiavelli down and Lorenzo up, but, except for fortuna, it might just as well have been the other way around. Fortuna locates the players; and fortuna is a place, a position, a location. Shift Machiavelli around, change the angle of vision, and he could have been watching in satisfaction as the Medici were again driven out of Tuscany. Lorenzo could just have easily been writing supplicating notes to Machiavelli in his recently enhanced position as the celebrated Secretary of the Ten and creator of the now (just imagine it!) invincible Florentine militia. Fortuna thus was not a trait (like good luck, great timing, or style) so much...