“This is the way I pray”: precatory language in the writings of Niccolò Machiavelli

A Conversation among Texts

Ben Jonson Journal ◽

10.3366/bjj.2018.0212 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 106-118 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Frances Teague

Keyword(s):

Ben Jonson ◽

Niccolo Machiavelli ◽

Critical Response ◽

Male Characters ◽

Niccolò Machiavelli ◽

History Of ◽

Rape Of Lucrece ◽

The Way

The essay examines the way that the story of the rape of Lucrece is told in Livy's The History of Rome (ca. 25–28 BCE), the way that Niccolò Machiavelli responds to that story in his play Mandragola (1518), and the way that Ben Jonson then responds to both of these earlier works in Volpone (1606). Rather than framing this investigation as a simple investigation of influence, the essay chooses to consider it as an example of intertextuality. Doing so helps explain critical response to Machiavelli's Lucretia and Jonson's Celia, both on stage and in the study. Further, the intertextual approach suggests an unexpected shift in the misogyny that critics often find in these works. The male characters respond in the same way to their situations, while the women respond independently in ways that show each both as a product of her culture and as a person.

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Outsiders of Hagnopolis: unbelief, fear, and religion in Thomas More's Utopia

Moreana ◽

10.3366/more.2017.0006 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 54 (Number 207) (1) ◽

pp. 57-70

Author(s):

Ismael del Olmo

Keyword(s):

Niccolo Machiavelli ◽

Civic Life ◽

Niccolò Machiavelli ◽

Divine Retribution ◽

Eternal Punishment

This paper deals with unbelief and its relationship with fear and religion in Thomas More's Utopia. It stresses the fact that Epicurean and radical Aristotelian theses challenged Christian notions about immortality, Providence, and divine Judgement. The examples of Niccolò Machiavelli and Pietro Pomponazzi, contemporaries of More, are set to show a heterodox connection between these theses and the notion of fear of eternal punishment. More's account of the Utopian religion, on the contrary, distinguishes between human fear and religious fear. This distinction enables him to highlight the threat to spiritual and civic life posed by those who deny the soul and divine retribution.

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