5/5/2023 0 Comments Mandrake 2010![]() Modern revivals and adaptations Revivals Other critics like John Najemy have interpreted scenes with the priest as Machiavelli pointing out "the social and political necessity of interpreting religion". The play is mentioned in the 16th Letter of Amabed in Voltaire's Les Lettres d'Amabed (1769) stating that "the piece mocks the religion which Europe preaches, of which Rome is the centre, and the throne of which is the Papal See". She allows a disguised Callimaco into her bed and, believing that the events which caused her to break her marriage vows were due to divine providence, thereafter accepts him as her lover on a more permanent basis. A reluctant Lucrezia is eventually convinced by her mother and the priest to comply with her husband's wishes. ![]() Ligurio helpfully suggests to Nicia that an unwitting fool be found for this purpose. He adds, however, the dire warning that the mandrake will undoubtedly kill the first man to have intercourse with her. He convinces Nicia to drug Lucrezia with mandrake, claiming it will increase her fertility. Conspiring with both Ligurio, a rascally marriage broker, and a corrupt priest named Friar Timoteo, Callimaco masquerades as a doctor. ![]() Nicia above all else desires a son and heir, but still has none. The protagonist, Callimaco, desires to sleep with Lucrezia, the young and beautiful wife of an elderly fool, Nicia. The Mandrake takes place over a 24-hour period. ![]() However, Machiavelli set the action in 1504 during the period of the Florentine Republic in order to express his frustrations without fear of censure from patrons already ill-disposed towards him and his writing. Some scholars read the play as an overt critique of the House of Medici and some scholars assert that the play is a mirror to his political treatises. Although the five-act comedy was published in 1524 and first performed in the carnival season of 1526, Machiavelli likely wrote The Mandrake in 1518 as a distraction from his bitterness at having been excluded from the diplomatic and political life of Florence following the 1512 reversion to Medici rule. The Mandrake (Italian: La Mandragola ) is a satirical play by Italian Renaissance philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli. ![]()
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