Machiavelli (1469 – 1527)

Though The Prince was not translated into English until 1640, his influence was strongly felt in England where dramatists created a ruthless figure called the Machiavel. Marlowe's play The Jew of Malta, about a Maltese Jew's barbarous revenge against the city authorities, has a prologue delivered by a character representing Machiavelli. The relevance of Machiavelli to Shakespeare's Octavius Caesar and Richard III is made explicit in this Prologue to Marlowe's play The Jew of Malta, spoken by Machiavelli himselF:

THE PROLOGUE: Enter Machevill.

MACHEVILL. Albeit the world think Machiavel is dead,
Yet was his soul but flown beyond the Alps;
And, now the Guise is dead, is come from France,
To view this land, and frolic with his friends.
To some perhaps my name is odious;
But such as love me guard me from their tongues,
And let them know that I am Machiavel,
And weigh not men, and therefore not men's words.
Admired I am of those that hate me most.
Though some speak openly against my books,
Yet will they read me and thereby attain
To Peter's chair; and when they cast me off,
Are poisoned by my climbing followers.
I count religion but a childish toy
And hold there is no sin but ignorance.
Birds of the air will tell of murders past?
I am ashamed to hear such fooleries.
Many will talk of title to a crown.
What right had Caesar to the empire?
Might first made kings, and laws were then most sure
When, like the Draco's, they were writ in blood.