Mandragola

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Mandragola, title page

Mandragola is a comedy in five acts by Niccolò Machiavelli . The exact date of the composition and the premiere is not certain. In literature, however, it is mostly assumed that Machiavelli wrote it down in January and February 1518 and that it premiered in September of the same year on the return of Lorenzo de 'Medici and his wife Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergnes , both of whom had previously been in France had married, took place in Florence. Mandragola is considered one of the most important comedies of the Renaissance.

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Canzone (vocals)

The canzone was added on the occasion of the Faenza Carnival in 1526 to replace a prologue . First of all, the hardships of life are ironically rejected, because no lessons can be drawn from them. Instead, the shepherds or singers of the canzone have opted for a joyful life. At the moment they are devoting their time to the festival that is taking place (Faenza Carnival), during which the comedy is being performed. This is followed by a brief praise of Clement VII or Francesco Guicciardini .

prolog

The audience is greeted. Florence is given as the location of the action. On the stage is the house of a scholar who is said to have been a pupil of a certain Buezio, whereby Buezio ("bue" = "ox") is intended to indicate that horns are often placed on him. Opposite a sidewalk known as Cupid's Path is the temple, an abbot's residence. There is also a door on the left of the stage that represents the entrance to the house of a young man named Callimaco Guadagno, who came from Paris. He fell in love with a young woman and, as the comedy later shows, duped her. The name of the comedy is mentioned, the characters of the comedy and their characteristics are introduced, but their names are not mentioned. Finally, the lecturer states that the purpose of the comedy is primarily to amuse the audience. The tendency of the audience is asserted to abandon comedies to oblivion because of their bigotry or because they badly spoken them - perhaps also in reference to previous plays such as Ariost's La Cassaria (1508), Bibbiena's La Calandria (1513), Giovan Giorgio Trissinos La Sophonisba (1515) in which the use of the language was discussed. At the end the action is initiated. Callimaco takes the stage with Siro, his servant.

first act

Callimaco has turned her back on Paris and has been living in Florence for a month. Callimaco tells his servant Siro the history of his trip to Florence. Callimaco had lost his parents in childhood and was sent to Paris by his guardian at the age of ten, where he stayed for 20 years. When war between France and Italy broke out in Italy as a result of the invasion of Charles VIII's troops , he vowed never to return to Italy. He sold all of his belongings in Italy except for his parents' house. One day he overheard a conversation between a Florentine and a certain Camillo Calfucci, who were discussing whether there were more beautiful women in Italy or in France. When Camillo got the short end of the discussion, he led the Italians to save their honor Lucrezia, wife of Nicia Calfucci, and praised their beauty and manners beyond measure.

Since then, the thought of Lucrezia Callimaco has not left him alone, and he decides to go to Florence regardless of the wars in Italy. When he saw Lucrezia in Florence, he realized that Lucrezia's beauty was beyond description. He's obsessed with getting together with her. Lucrezia has the power word ("si lascia governare da lei") at home, although he is a rich man and a doctor, from whom one might suspect a certain self-confident behavior. Although she is still young, she does not go to parties like other people of the same age where you could have met her, but she almost never goes out. In addition, Callimaco sees no chance of perhaps bribing the servants. They are averted from all corruption. Despite these adversities, Callimaco hopes that he will still achieve his goal, because despite his doctorate, Nicia is the "dumbest and easiest man in Florence" ("il più semplice e el più sciocco uomo di Firenze"). Furthermore, although Nicia and Lucrezia have been married for six years, they are still childless and obsessed with the desire to have children ("è un desiderio che muoiono"). Callimaco made friends with the former matchmaker Ligurio, who is a frequent guest at Nicia. Ligurio promises help to Callimaco, who is in love, to reach his goal at Lucrezia. Callimaco promises the Ligurio a sum of money if their plan is successful. Ligurio persuades Nicia to visit a thermal bath with his wife in order to promote the fertility of both of them through the healing water. However, Nicia would like to get advice from a doctor beforehand about which thermal bath is the best for this purpose. Callimaco disguises himself as a doctor in order to be able to recommend the thermal bath that he (Callimaco) likes to his husband.

Each act of the piece ends with a chant. In the canzone of the first act love is sung about, the highest good in heaven, it lets you live and die at the same time, leads you to be unreasonable and drives you to contradictory reactions, and it hits people as well as gods.

Second act

In relation to Nicia, Ligurio praises the supposed doctor Callimaco in the highest tones. But Nicia is suspicious and wants to put Callimaco through its paces. During the subsequent encounter between Nicias and Callimacos, it is completely sufficient for Callimaco Nicia to answer in Latin for Nicia to consider the "doctor" to be an excellent representative of his subject. Since Nicia, who is extremely lazy about movement, wants to avoid having to go to a cure with bag and bag in a possibly distant bathroom, Ligurio intervenes in the conversation between the two. He asks Callimaco about a potion that could make the desire for children come true. But first, Ligurio suggests taking a urine sample. When Nicia returns to Callimaco with her own urine sample and that of his wife, the urine is examined. Callimaco does this in Latin to make an impression. The urine sample obviously (besides the amusement of the audience - because obviously even a urine sample taken for medical purposes at that time represented a massive intrusion into the privacy of women in particular) the purpose of testing Lucrezia's (and probably Nicia's) stubbornness, because Callimaco suddenly comes back to the fertility-enhancing potion after examining the samples. The potion is a mandrake potion (Eng. "Alraune" = It. "Mandragola"), which has already helped the French queen to become fertile. The downside is that the first person to lie down with the woman after she has consumed the potion dies within a week. Nicia is appalled by this news. Callimaco appeases, however, that Nicia could let someone sleep with his wife who would take in the poison of the mandrake completely, so that he could then lie down with her again. Nicia defends himself against this solution because he does not want to be seen as a horned man and because he fears that his wife will sue him because of his consent. But Callimaco has the following plan: Nicia should give his wife the potion that evening. During the night Siro, Callimaco, Nicia and Ligurio disguised themselves and caught the first youngster they found on the street. They would bring this to Nicia's house, show him what to do, and throw him out before dawn. After that, Nicia could have fun with his wife at will. The only problem was to make Lucrezia submissive to the young man. But Ligurio had the idea of ​​calling in Timoteo, a confessor, for this purpose. But here again the problem arises of how to persuade Lucrezia to turn to the confessor (especially since she has had bad experiences with priests). There remains only Sostrata, Lucrezia's mother, who gives her unreserved faith, although it is clear that her mother will be on the side of men. So while Callimaco is preparing the drink, Ligurio and Nicia go to see Lucrezia's mother.

In the canzone of the second act, the happiness of the stupid is sung about and Nicia's fixation on the happiness of children.

Third act

Sostrata, Lucrezia's mother, agrees with the three men's plans and is supposed to send the daughter to their confessor, Timoteo, whom Nicia and Ligurio visit in the meantime. Nicia is supposed to be silent during the conversation and is therefore introduced by Ligurio as a deaf-mute . In order to make the confessor compliant, Ligurio offers him a donation of 300 ducats. Before Ligurio tells Timoteo his true intent, however, he puts him to the test with a made up story.

He invents a story according to which Camillo Calfucci went to France a year ago for business reasons. Since his wife had died, he entrusted his daughter to a monastery whose name Ligurio would not reveal. Camillo's daughter is now four months pregnant because of the neglect or simplicity of the nuns. Camillo is now about to keep the pregnancy and childbirth of the daughter a secret in order to protect the family's honor. Ligurio wanted to entrust Camillo's daughter to the confessor and the abbess. The abbess was to give Camillo's daughter a potion for an abortion. Before the name of the monastery is mentioned, however, the conversation is interrupted by a woman who waves the Ligurio aside and tells him that Camillos' daughter has already lost the fetus.

But Timoteo could do him another favor. Sostrata has meanwhile informed her daughter of her husband's plan to make her fertile with the help of the mandrake potion. Since Lucrezia has concerns about sleeping with a stranger after taking the potion, her mother persuades her to get a second opinion from confessor Timoteo. Finally, Lucrezia agrees. Nicia and Ligurio, who overheard the conversation between the women and Timoteo, discuss the further progress of the plan with Timoteo: Nicia should go home and Ligurio pick up the drink from Callimaco. Afterwards Nicia and Ligurio will meet to discuss what to do at night.

In the canzone of the third act, cunning is extolled as a sweet medicine that brings people back on the right path. She makes people happy and Cupid rich.

Fourth act

Ligurio reports to Callimaco that the intrigue is in place, Lucrezia has consented and Timoteo will act as planned. Callimaco has meanwhile prepared the mandrake potion - actually a kind of mulled wine.

Suddenly he realizes that with the story of the imprisoned youth who has to be led into Lucrezia's bed, he has robbed himself of the chance to lie down with Lucrezia himself. If he lay down with Lucrezia, Nicia would notice that one of them was missing in the search for the right youth, but if he took part in the hunt, he would not be able to lie down with Lucrezia. He solves the problem by intending to persuade Timoteo to disguise himself as Callimaco, while Callimaco is supposed to stay near Nicia's house as the supposed youth.

Callimaco sends Siro to Nicia with the drink and Ligurio picks up Timoteo disguised as Callimaco. Siro, Ligurio, and the fake Callimaco arrive at Callimaco's house almost simultaneously. One goes on the hunt for the young man, the false Callimaco comes his way, is caught and brought to Nicia. After Ligurio's plan was successful, Timoteo leaves the journeymen because of a headache.

In the canzone of the fourth act, the night is sung in which the lovers come together and after long struggles can finally have fun with each other.

Fifth act

Out of curiosity about the outcome of the plan, Timoteo cannot sleep the whole night, he spends the time putting a few things in order in the monastery and laments the negligence and sloppiness of his friars.

Sostrata is sitting by the fireplace in Nicia's house. Nicia has locked Callimaco, disguised as a "youth", in a dimly lit pantry, where Nicia examines him carefully for sexually transmitted diseases. The husband then pulls the "young man" into his wife's room, places him next to her and checks whether they are actually having sexual intercourse. Finally he leaves the room and kills time talking to Sostrata.

Callimaco is now getting a remorse. He reveals himself to Lucrezia, confesses his love to her and promises to marry her after Nicias death. Lucrezia, however, interprets the night she spent with Callimaco as the work of divine providence - especially since she liked Callimaco far better as a lover than her husband. She wishes that he and Nicia would become godfathers so that Callimaco could continue to visit her. Callimaco is supposed to escort her and Nicia to church and then have lunch with them. Callimaco is extremely happy. Towards morning Nicia takes the boy out of the room and, with the help of Ligurios and Siros, throws him out of the house.

Nicia has his wife awakened and washed to take her to church for her to be blessed. The three change clothes. Siro and Ligurio leave the house, so as not to get up late to arouse the suspicion that they have been on guard all night, and arrange to meet Nicia in the church. You reach the church before Nicia, Lucrezia and Sostrata.

The Timoteo, notified by Callimaco and Ligurio, receives Nicia and the two women at the entrance to the church. Nicia calls Callimaco and Ligurio to her, introduces his wife to the Callimaco as the one to whom they owe it that they will now have support for the future, because he was repeatedly assured that he would have a son. Lucrezia asks her husband to make Callimaco his godfather. Nicia invites Callimaco and Ligurio to lunch and gives the future godfather the key to his house so that he can always visit him and his wife.

Timoteo receives a cash donation from Lucrezia for conception, and the birth ceremony begins. Timoteo asks the six into the church, but the audience should not wait for the company to leave the church, as the mass is long and the company would leave the church through a side entrance.

people

  • Callimaco , a Florentine
  • Lucrezia , wife of Nicia
  • Messer Nicia , a wealthy Florentine, husband of Lucrezia
  • Camillo Calfucci , a friend of Callimacos
  • Siro , servant of the Callimaco
  • Ligurio , matchmaker
  • Sostrata , mother of Lucrezia
  • Frater Timoteo (Brother Timoteo), confessor
  • other people: una donna (a woman)

Other Information

  • In contrast to many other contemporary comedies, the plot was not only inspired by Terence and Plautus ' comedies and Boccaccio's Decamerons (~ 1349–1353), but also by medieval allegorical texts. Two of them are particularly noteworthy. The first is a legend that is documented in the Arabic Secretum secretorum from the 12th century. A girl who, according to legend, was fed snake venom can eventually poison men, especially when they have sex. Another legend, the subject of which gave Machiavelli's comedy its name, has to do with the magical properties of the mandrake (mandragora). The Physiologus reports that the elephant has no sexual instinct, so the female eats the mandragora tree before mating in order to become pregnant. The owner of this plant should be able to make everyone in love. The mandrake is also said to keep away evil spirits and diseases. Accordingly, criminals cannot win the mandrake themselves, but only through a hungry dog, which is tied to the plant and ultimately baited with food.
  • Machiavelli also brings some local flavor into play with little effort. It is suggested that as a lawyer you cannot earn any money, or at least not enough money to survive, if you have no contact with the local government. Usually unemployed legal scholars pass the time by attending weddings or similar ceremonial occasions or by watching the women outside the gates of the government building. A second example is the woman who asks Brother Timoteo at confession about the situation with the invasion of the Turks and whether it is likely that they would all be impaled by the Turks (although this can also be understood as a slippery hint, especially since her late husband, for whom Brother Timoteo is supposed to pray on her behalf, is said to have been a lecher). The purpose of this local color is to show the society in which the people acting in the mandragola are.
  • The fear of the Turks expressed to Frater Timoteo is, according to Mario Baratto, an expression of panic fear of the seemingly unstoppable expansion of the Ottoman Empire that was widespread in Europe at the time . Machiavelli makes fun of the madness through this scene.
  • There are also allusions to contemporary history in Mandragola . The comedy takes place in 1504. The words verrucola and carrucola , which are used in a dialogue between Nicia and Ligurio that seems bizarre for today's readers or viewers, allude to the surrender of fortress Verrucola during the Florence campaign against Pisa.
  • The model for Lucrezia is the person of the same name ( Lucretia ) in Titus Livius ' Ab urbe condita
  • Ligurio is a parasite according to the opinion of the time, its hunger, the satisfaction of which was the main purpose of the parasitism of the time, is not even mentioned in Mandragola . The only allusion to this aspect of the person is the name itself, which refers to a gemstone whose properties are said to include the alleviation of stomach pains.
  • Andrea del Sarto and Bastiano da Sangallo created the sets for the premiere in Florence in 1525 .

Mandragola and Il Principe

  • The politics of the ideal prince in Machiavelli's main work Il Principe (1532) are partly reflected in the actions of Callimaco, who is neither a Petrarkist enthusiast nor a cynical lover. What is "Machiavellian" about Callimaco is that he intends to use rational, strategic means to conquer his loved ones. He weighs the obstacles and devises plans to overcome them. In Ligurio he finds an ally for his purposes. In order not to be betrayed by him, Callimaco Ligurio promises a significant sum of money if the plan succeeds.
  • The happy ending of the Mandragola represents a victory of efficiency, the virtù (actually: virtue). In Il Principe , Machiavelli explains that you have to seize opportunities or fate in order to be successful as a prince.
  • Lucrezia's actions at the end of the comedy also correspond to Machiavelli's philosophy, because she too seizes the opportunity by opposing the conventional conception of virtù (i.e., virtue) and instead practicing Machiavellian virtue. Since Lucrezia now knows that she will enjoy life with Callimaco, she decides to have an affair with him, which will ultimately end with the death of Messer Nicias in a socially sanctioned love affair.
  • Ligurio is the real conspirator. He surpasses everyone in the comedy in cunning and cunning. He's the one who discards the plan to lure Nicia into the bathroom and instead initiates the plan with the mandrake. Furthermore, he is the one who outwits Brother Timoteo and proves his superiority when it comes to casuistry when he puts Brother Timoteo to the test with the story of the girl who wants to have an abortion. At the end of the comedy he mimes the army commander and strategically positions his cronies like troops in the upcoming kidnapping of the young man who is supposed to sleep with Lucrezia. However, he has more of an advisory role and helps Callimaco to achieve its goal. ¨
  • According to Mario Baratto, Mandragola is an expression of Machiavelli's frustration. In Mandragola, the intelligentsia does not help a prince to conquer a state, but rather a young man to get into the bed of a married woman. Ligurio is an intellectual and at the same time a good-for-nothing, a good-for-nothing, because intelligence no longer counts in a dying Italy.

Film adaptations

Literary role models

Bible

Tobias 6, 14-22

Latin literature

Italian literature

Boccaccio

  • Role models for Callimaco, d. H. The motif of the young man who falls in love with a woman through mere hearsay can be found in the fifth novella of the first day of the Decameron , in which the French King Philippe Le Borgne learns that the Marquise of Monferrato is the most beautiful woman in his kingdom is. On the way to a crusade, the king visits them and tries in vain to seduce them. In the seventh novella of the eighth day, the young Florentine Lodovico, who lives in France, hears of the beauty of Madonna Beatrice of Bologna, whereupon he sets off on a journey to the city in question and finally wins her heart.
  • The person of Lucrezia seems to be borrowed from another novella (the sixth of the third day). Here, too, a woman commits adultery and finally gives in to the facts without denying herself the opportunity for a more enjoyable love affair: Several attempts by the Neapolitan nobleman Ricciardo Minutolo to approach Catella, Filipello Fighinolfi's wife, fail. Since Ricciardo knows about Catella's jealousy towards her husband, he tells her that her husband has arranged to meet his wife in a bathroom. Angry, Catella goes to the bathroom and has a pleasantly surprised sexually with Ricciardo, whom she takes to be her husband. When Catella learns the true identity of the man she had fun with in the bathroom, she vows to take revenge on him. Since Ricciardo continues to assault her with his pleading for love, she allows herself to be softened and finally wins him love.
  • We find the argument of Brother Timoteo that adultery is not a particularly serious sin in a person who is not in love with the person with whom he is committing adultery, because the person sins only with his body, but the soul remains immaculate again in the eighth novella of the third day, albeit in a different context. In this novella it concerns u. a. a holy abbot who promises to cure a man's jealousy by having sexual relations with his lady. The lady told him not to act like a saint, to which the abbot replied that the holiness of the soul was inherent and that he had only asked her to commit a physical sin.

Others

See also

literature

Text output
  • Niccolò Machiavelli: Mandragola . Garzanti, Milan 2005.
  • Niccolò Machiavelli: The Comedies . Translated and edited by Andreas Skrziepietz. Neopubli, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-7418-1710-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Physiologus. Edited by Ursula Treu. 3rd edition Hanau 1998. p. 80.
  2. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 120-121.
  3. ↑ cf. Ezio Raimondi: Politica e commedia. Dal Beroaldo al Machiavelli (1972). Bologna: Il Mulino: 255.
  4. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 133.
  5. ↑ cf. Mario Baratto: La commedia del Cinquecento (aspetti e problemi) ( 1975/77 ). Vicenza: Neri Pozza: 116-117.
  6. ↑ cf. Ezio Raimondi: Politica e commedia. Dal Beroaldo al Machiavelli (1972). Bologna: Il Mulino: 200.
  7. ↑ cf. Ezio Raimondi: Politica e commedia. Dal Beroaldo al Machiavelli (1972). Bologna: Il Mulino: 202-203.
  8. ↑ cf. Anne Paolucci: Livy's Lucretia, Shakespeare's “Lucrece”, Machiavelli's “Mandragola”. In: Maristella de Panizza Lorch (ed.): Il teatro italiano del Rinascimento (1980). Milano: Edizioni di Comunità: 620.
  9. ↑ cf. Ezio Raimondi: Politica e commedia. Dal Beroaldo al Machiavelli (1972). Bologna: Il Mulino: 210-211.
  10. ↑ Alice Jarrard: Parole chiave - Bastiano da Sangallo, detto Aristotile (1481-1551) ( Memento of the original from August 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.italica.rai.it
  11. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 123.
  12. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 125.
  13. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 128.
  14. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 131-132, see also footnote 144.
  15. ↑ cf. Mario Baratto: La commedia del Cinquecento (aspetti e problemi) ( 1975/77 ). Vicenza: Neri Pozza: 119.
  16. ↑ cf. Ezio Raimondi: Politica e commedia. Dal Beroaldo al Machiavelli (1972). Bologna: Il Mulino: 203-204.
  17. ↑ cf. Ezio Raimondi: Politica e commedia. Dal Beroaldo al Machiavelli (1972). Bologna: Il Mulino: 173-178.
  18. ↑ cf. Ezio Raimondi: Politica e commedia. Dal Beroaldo al Machiavelli (1972). Bologna: Il Mulino: 257-258.
  19. ↑ cf. Ezio Raimondi: Politica e commedia. Dal Beroaldo al Machiavelli (1972). Bologna: Il Mulino: 201-202.
  20. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 124.
  21. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 127.
  22. ↑ cf. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead: The Birth of Modern Comedy in Renaissance Italy (1969). Chicago / London: The University of Chicago Press: 130.
  23. ↑ on Boccaccio cf. also Ezio Raimondi: Politica e commedia. Dal Beroaldo al Machiavelli (1972). Bologna: Il Mulino: 178-181.
  24. ↑ cf. Ezio Raimondi: Politica e commedia. Dal Beroaldo al Machiavelli (1972). Bologna: Il Mulino: 256-257.
  25. ↑ cf. Ezio Raimondi: Politica e commedia. Dal Beroaldo al Machiavelli (1972). Bologna: Il Mulino: 257.
  26. ↑ cf. Ezio Raimondi: Politica e commedia. Dal Beroaldo al Machiavelli (1972). Bologna: Il Mulino: 187-190, 259-262.