Historians of political thought have argued that the real Machiavelli is the republican thinker and theorist of civic virtù. Machiavellian Rhetoric argues in contrast that Renaissance readers were right to see Machiavelli as a Machiavel, a figure of force and fraud, rhetorical cunning and deception. Taking the rhetorical Machiavel as a point of departure, Victoria Kahn argues that this figure is not simply the result of a naïve misreading of Machiavelli but is attuned to the rhetorical dimension of his political theory in a way that later thematic readings of Machiavelli are not. Her aim is to provide a revised history of Renaissance Machiavellism, particularly in England: one that sees the Machiavel and the republican as equally valid — and related — readings of Machiavelli’s work. In this revised history, Machiavelli offers a rhetoric for dealing with the realm of de facto political power, rather than a political theory with a coherent thematic content; and Renaissance Machiavellism includes a variety of rhetorically sophisticated appreciations and appropriations of Machiavelli’s own rhetorical approach to politics. Part I offers readings of The Prince, The Discourses, and Counter-Reformation responses to Machiavelli. Part II discusses the reception of Machiavelli in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century England. Part III focuses on Milton, especially Areopagitica, Comus, and Paradise Lost.
Author(s): Victoria Kahn
Edition: 1
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Year: 1994
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF | Full TOC
Pages: 332
Tags: Rhetoric: 1500–1800; Machiavelli, Niccollò: 1469–1527: Political And Social Views; Machiavelli Niccollò: 1469–1527: Crtiticism And Interpretation; Politics And Literature
Cover
Half title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations and Note on Spelling and Translations
Introduction
Part One | Machiavelli
One | The Prince
Imitation and Misrepresentation
Examples of Virtù
Theatricality
Force and Persuasion: Agathocles as Machiavel
and Proto-Republican
Virtù and Success, Ends and Means
Irony and Allegory
Two | The Discourses
Ridutte in ordine: Reading Livy
A Rhetoric of Conflict
Examples in utramque partem
Three | Rhetoric and Reason of State: Botero’s Reading of Machiavelli
Rhetoric, Poetics, and Politics
Botero’s Ragion di stato
Sublime Politics in the Aggiunta on Reputation
Part Two | English Machiavellism
Four | Reading Machiavelli, 1550–1640
Stephen Gardiner: Machiavellian Providence
Ralegh and Bacon: Rhetorical Method and De Facto Power
Shakespeare’s Coriolanus: The Machiavel and the Republican
Editors and Translators
Five | Machiavellian Debates, 1530–1660
Henry VIII and the Doctrine of Things Indifferent
The Civil War and Machiavellian Indifference
The Civil War: Persuasion and Coercion, Virtue and Success
The Engagement Controversy
Part Three | Milton
Six | A Rhetoric of Indifference
Areopagitica
Machiavellian Topics
Seven | Virtue and Virtù in Comus
Virtù and Virtuosity
Jonson and Carew
Comus
Eight | Machiavellian Rhetoric in Paradise Lost
Satan’s Rhetoric in Books 1 and 2
The Allegory of Sin and Death
Machiavellism in Eden
Coda | Rhetoric and the Critique of Ideology
Appendix | A Brief Note on Rhetoric and Republicanism in the Historiography of the Italian Renaissance
Notes
Introduction
Part One |
Machiavelli
Chapter One
|The Prince
Chapter Two | The Discourses
Chapter Three | Rhetoric And Reason Of State: Botero's Reading Of Machiavelli
Part Two | English Machiavellism
Chapter Four | Reading Machiavelli, 1550-1640
Chapter Five | Machiavellian Debates, 1530-1660
Part Three | Milton
Chapter Six | A Rhetoric Of Indiference
Chapter Seven | Virtue And Virtù in Comus
Chapter Eight | Machiavellian Rhetoric In Paradise Lost
Coda | Rhetoric And The Critique Of Ideology
Appendix | A Brief Note On Rhetoric And Republicanism In The Historiography Of The Italian Renaissance
Index
