A Conversation with Machiavelli · Pair 14 of 39
Editor's summary Machiavelli holds that a people used to a prince keeps a liberty won by accident only with difficulty, since the new free state makes enemies of the tyranny's beneficiaries and no friends, and its strongest remedy is to kill the sons of Brutus. Guicciardini makes a very great difference between a people that has never known liberty and one that has lost it, and prescribes a tempered government: rigid against plotters, persecuting none on mere suspicion, and ready to receive the tyranny's friends when their conduct or condition gives hope they will not be liberty's enemies. In such cases, he grants, blood must be shed, but it would have been better had Brutus had no sons than to have them and have to kill them.
Un Popolo uso a vivere sotto un Principe, se per qualche accidente diventa libero, con difficultà mantiene la libertà.
A people used to living under a prince, if by some accident it becomes free, maintains liberty with difficulty.
Argument. The thesis, and its first ground. That a people used to living under a prince preserves liberty with difficulty, if by some accident it acquires it, infinite examples in the ancient histories demonstrate; and the difficulty is reasonable. The ground is a simile carried through one period: a brute animal, however ferocious and wild by nature, if it has been nourished always in prison and in servitude and is then let go free, does not know how to feed itself or where to take refuge, and becomes the prey of the first who seeks to chain it again. Its nature is not the trouble; its habit is. The case named is Rome, which acquired liberty after the expulsion of the Tarquins.
History. The Tarquins were expelled from Rome by tradition in 509 BC, when Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus became the first consuls (Livy 1.59–60).
Argument. The simile applied, and the chapter's limit. A people used to the governments of others does not know how to reason of public defences or offences, does not know the princes nor is known by them, and so returns soon under a yoke, most of the time heavier than the one it lifted off. And this happens even where the matter is not altogether corrupted. Where corruption has altogether entered, a people cannot live free at all, and that case is put off to "below" (in fact the next chapter); the reasonings here are of peoples where corruption has not expanded much, and there is more of the good than of the spoiled. Everything that follows stands inside that condition.
Cross-reference. Guicciardini opens with a different cut, which Machiavelli does not draw: a people that has never known liberty against one that has lost it by some accident Guicciardini .01.
Argument. The second difficulty: the state that becomes free makes for itself partisans that are enemies and none that are friends. The enemies are those who took advantage of the tyranny and fed on the prince's riches; deprived of the capacity to avail themselves, they cannot live content, and each is forced to try to resume the tyranny. The friends do not come, for two reasons. Free living rewards and honours only by rule, for honest and determinate causes, and whoever gets what he thinks he merits confesses no debt to those who give it. And the common utility of free living, to enjoy one's own without suspicion, not to doubt of the honour of one's women and children, not to fear for oneself, is not known by anyone while it is possessed: no one will confess a debt to one who does not offend him. The paragraph closes on the formula it opened with, now drawn as a consequence (Però, come di sopra si dice).
Cross-reference. Guicciardini's reply meets the first half in its own word: it happens many times, he says, that the tyranny's friends, received by a tempered government and secure, "content themselves within it", and he has seen it in Florence Guicciardini .03. The word "suspicion" returns in Guicciardini turned to the state's suspicion of its citizens: the free city must persecute no one on simple suspicion Guicciardini .04.
Argument. The remedy, stated with four comparatives and no softening: against these inconveniences and disorders there is no remedy more powerful, more valid, more sound or more necessary than to kill the sons of Brutus. The sons of Brutus are a type as well as a case: young men who conspired against the fatherland for no other reason than that under the consuls they could not avail themselves extraordinarily as they had under the kings, so that the liberty of that people seemed to have become their servitude. The rule follows and widens it to every new order: whoever takes up governing a multitude, by the path of liberty or of principate, and does not secure himself of those who are enemies to it, makes a state of little life.
History. Livy 2.3–5: young nobles, among them Titus and Tiberius, sons of the consul Lucius Junius Brutus, conspired with envoys of the Tarquins to restore the kings; the plot was betrayed by a slave, and Brutus, as consul, watched his sons scourged and beheaded. Livy (2.3) gives the young men's complaint, that the liberty of others had been turned into their servitude.
Cross-reference. Guicciardini grants that in such cases it is necessary to put hand into blood, but will not have the new liberty desire sons of Brutus so as to acquire reputation and terror by severity, a purpose Machiavelli does not state; and he narrows the class to the restless, the rapacious, and those without the quality for a place in liberty Guicciardini .04.
Argument. A concession in the first person, and the turn to princes. "It is true that I judge unhappy" the princes who, to secure their state, must hold to extraordinary paths because the multitude is their enemy: whoever has the few for enemies secures himself readily, but whoever has the generality for enemy never does, and the more cruelty he uses, the weaker his principate becomes. So the greatest remedy there is, is to seek to make the people one's friend. Against a few enemies the remedy was to secure oneself of them, at its strongest by killing, and even then without many scandals; against the generality, cruelty only weakens, and the ground given (perché) is the number of the enemies.
Cross-reference. Guicciardini's last sentence turns this remedy in its own verb: where the people's enmity is rooted in the desire of liberty, the remedy the prince has is either to make himself partisans powerful to oppress the people, or to beat it down and bring in new inhabitants Guicciardini .05.
Argument. A declared digression. The discourse is unlike what went before, a prince here and a republic there, but so as not to return to the matter Machiavelli treats it briefly, and he restricts it at once to princes who have become tyrants of their fatherland. Such a prince, wishing to gain a people that is his enemy, must first examine what it desires, and will find two things: vengeance on those who made it a servant, and to have back its liberty. The first can be satisfied altogether, the second in part.
Argument. The first desire, by example. Clearchus was in exile; the optimates, having the worse of a controversy with the people, conspired with him, put him into Heraclea against the popular disposition, and took liberty from the people. Caught between the insolence of the optimates, whom he could neither content nor correct, and the rage of the people, who could not bear the loss of liberty, he resolved at a stroke to free himself of the great and gain the people, and at a fitting occasion cut all the optimates to pieces, to the people's extreme satisfaction. So he satisfied one of the longings peoples have, vengeance. The example is given as an example, without judgment.
History. Clearchus, tyrant of Heraclea on the Black Sea from about 364 BC until his murder some twelve years later. Justin (16.4–5) has him recalled from exile by the senate to put down the plebs, and then turn to the plebs and seize and kill the senators. Machiavelli's version compresses the story and supplies the tyrant's motive, to be free of the great and gain the people.
Cross-reference. Guicciardini finds it puerile to believe that Clearchus killed the optimates to satisfy the people: had they been his friends he would have gained little; what is to be believed, he implies, is that Clearchus held them suspect, wished to oppress them, and gave the deed the colour of pleasing the people Guicciardini .05. That is not far from Machiavelli's first motive, to free himself from the vexation of the great; what Guicciardini refuses is the case as an example of a tyrant gaining a people by satisfying it.
Argument. The second desire, divided. The prince cannot satisfy the desire for liberty, so he must examine its causes: a small part of the people wants to be free in order to command, all the rest, who are infinite, in order to live secure. Those who attain to the degrees of commanding are never as many as forty or fifty, and can be secured either by removing them or by giving them a share of so many honours that, according to their conditions, they are in good part to content themselves. The many are satisfied readily, by orders and laws in which, with the prince's power, the universal security is comprised; and when the people sees that the prince breaks such laws by no accident, it will soon begin to live secure and content. The example is France, which lives secure because its kings have bound themselves to infinite laws: whoever ordered that state willed that the kings do as they please with arms and money, and dispose of every other thing only as the laws were ordered. For the many, liberty is desired for the sake of security, and security a prince can give; liberty and security remain two words. The few, too, are secured by honours as well as by removal: the sword is not Machiavelli's only means.
History. France and its laws appear also in The Prince, chapter 19, where the parlement restrains the great and protects the people without burdening the king.
Cross-reference. Guicciardini's whole Florentine people wanted liberty "so as to partake of the honours, so as to have a hand in the government": the motive Machiavelli confines to the few, and the honours he thought could content them; no good treatment, says Guicciardini, eradicates that desire Guicciardini .05. Machiavelli's securing of the few by honours is his nearest point to Guicciardini's reception of the tyranny's friends Guicciardini .03.
Argument. The rule for prince and republic alike: whoever does not secure himself at the beginning of his state must do it at the first occasion, as the Romans did, and whoever lets it pass repents late. Rome could maintain its liberty because the people was not yet corrupted when it recovered it: the sons of Brutus killed, the Tarquins extinguished, and the remedies and orders already discussed. Had it been corrupted, no remedy in Rome or anywhere would have been found. The counterfactual closes the frame the chapter opened in .02 and hands the corrupted people to the next chapter.
Cross-reference. Machiavelli's Rome "recovered" liberty (ricuperò), having "acquired" it at .01, and his verb implies the distinction Guicciardini draws between a people that once was free and one that never was. Guicciardini raises Rome against his own distinction, as a people that never knew liberty and yet kept it, and answers: the Romans changed nothing but the transfer of the kings' power, and if those orders were good, that came less from prudence than from the fortune that they served liberty as well; they had felt Tarquinius; and free neighbours make it a lesser marvel Guicciardini .02. He does not dispute Machiavelli's "not yet corrupted".
Established from the 1824 edition (WIT-NM-DISC-1824-IA), page-image-backed, which governs. Collated against the 1554 Giglio printing, Venice (WIT-NM-DISC-1554-IA), which is comparison evidence only.
Paragraph divisions are editorial. The witness prints the chapter as one unbroken block.
sotto un Principe preservare dipoi la libertà — 1824. The 1554 witness reads sotto un Prencipe conseruare dipoi la liberta. Giglio's people conserve their liberty rather than preserve it. Same sense; conservare is the word Guicciardini answers with.
di quel dei figliuoli, non temere di sé — 1824. The 1554 witness reads di quel de figliuoli, non tenere di se. Giglio's tenere does not construe here; both 1824 readers read temere on the sampled page.
a questi inconvenienti e a questi disordini, che le soprascritte difficultà si arrecherebbono seco — 1824. The 1554 witness reads a questi incouenienti, & a quegli disordini, che le soprascritte difficulta ci arrecherebbono seco. Giglio has quegli for the second questi and the difficulties bring them to us. Same sense.
che per poco innanzi si aveva levato d'insù il collo — 1824. The 1554 witness reads che poco innanzi si haueua leuato dal collo. Same sense. Rests on the transcript.
pareva che fusse diventata la loro servitù — 1824. The 1554 witness reads pareua che fusse diuennuta la loro seruitù. Same sense.
avendo per nimici la moltitudine — 1824. The 1554 witness reads hauendo per nemici la grandissima moltitudine. Giglio makes the hostile multitude very great.
e quanta più crudeltà usa — 1824. The 1554 witness reads & quanto piu crudelta usa. A word-level difference at a letter the scan breaks (D203(b)); both 1824 readers read quanta on the sampled page. Adjective for adverb, same sense. Kept (D217).
Talché il maggiore rimedio che si abbia è cercare — 1824. The 1554 witness reads Talche di maggior rimedio, che si habbia, e cercare. Giglio's di before maggior rimedio reads as a misprint for il.
parlando qui d'un Principe, e quivi d'una Repubblica — 1824. The 1554 witness reads parlando qui di uno buonissimo Prencipe, et quiui d'una Republica. Giglio's prince here is a very good one. The 1824 text leaves him unqualified.
quando ei ricuperò la libertà, potette mantenerla — 1824. The 1554 witness reads quando ei recupero la liberta, pote mantenerla. Pass A doubted the pronoun's first letter (ei/ci) on p. 80, outside the D199 sample; the alternatives are different words. Read ei with Giglio (D203(a), D217).
che altra volta si sono discorsi — 1824. The 1554 witness reads che altre uolte si sono discorsi. A word-level difference at a letter the scan breaks (D203(b)): another time against other times. Both construe; kept (D217).
Orthography, capitalization, word division and punctuation follow the governing witness throughout; no reading is hybridized between witnesses.
preservare dipoi la libertà. "To preserve liberty afterwards": dipoi as D187. The 1554 edition reads conseruare, "conserve", the word Guicciardini answers with (NM-DISC-I16-D001).
come l'acquistò Roma dopo la cacciata de' Tarquinj. "As Rome acquired it after the expulsion of the Tarquins": 509 BC. Rome is the case the chapter returns to at its close (.09).
lo dimostrano infiniti esempj. "Infinite examples demonstrate": the Italian fronts the question and takes it up with lo; the English fronts it without the pronoun.
uno animale bruto. "A brute animal": the chapter's simile, carried through one period: nourished in prison, let go free, not used to feeding itself, not knowing its lairs, the prey of the first who seeks to chain it again. Pascersi, "feeding itself", returns at .03, where the tyrant's partisans were "feeding themselves on the riches of the prince".
di natura feroce e silvestre. "Of a ferocious and wild nature": feroce as I.11's ferocissimo, "most ferocious"; silvestre, of the woods.
le latebre. "The lairs": a Latinism (Latin latebrae, hiding places).
ritorna presto sotto un giogo. "Returns soon under a yoke": the people's yoke is heavier than the one it lifted off its neck. The animal's chain (rincatenarlo) becomes a yoke.
ancora che la materia non sia in tutto corrotta. "Even though the matter be not altogether corrupted": ancora che, "even though" (glossary). Materia, the matter a founder works in, as I.11's marble; corrotto, "corrupted", as the glossary (I.8). The corrupted people is put off to the next chapter (.09).
non può, non che picciol tempo, ma punto vivere libero. "It cannot, not to say [for] a little time, but at all live free": non che, "not to say", has no subject, and the English supplies none.
ampliata. "Expanded": ampliare (D132).
del guasto. "Of the spoiled": the corrupted, as of fruit or meat.
alla soprascritta. "To the above-written [difficulty]": soprascritto, kept apart from sopraddetto, "above-said" (D140). It returns at .04 (le soprascritte difficultà) and .06 (dal soprascritto).
partigiani nimici e non partigiani amici. "Partisan enemies and not partisan friends": the phrase opens .03 and closes it (Però ...), and each half is argued between; the English keeps the formula word for word. In the English the adjective and the noun have changed places: the Italian's partisans are the noun, and they are enemies, not friends. Guicciardini's last sentence turns it: the prince's remedy is to make himself partisans "of such quality" that they can oppress the people (Guicciardini .05).
si prevalevano. "Took advantage": prevalersi, kept apart from valersi, "avail oneself" (D162), which follows in the same period (la facoltà del valersi) and at .04 (valere straordinariamente).
a' quali sendo tolta la facoltà del valersi, non possono vivere contenti. "From whom the capacity of availing themselves being taken away, they cannot live content": the Italian begins a relative and finishes with a new subject, and the English keeps the break. Facoltà, "capacity" (glossary facultà).
propone onori e premj, medianti alcune oneste e determinate cagioni. "Proposes honours and rewards by means of certain honest and determinate causes": free living rewards by rule, for stated causes, and not otherwise. Premj, "rewards" (glossary).
quegli utili, quella comune utilità. "Those profits", "that common utility": what one man gets, and what all have without knowing it.
non confessa avere obbligo. "He does not confess having a debt": obbligo, debt (D17), twice in the period; the second (nissuno confesserà mai avere obbligo con uno che non l'offenda) is the turn of the argument: no one owes thanks for not being harmed.
di quel dei figliuoli. "Of that of the children": figliuoli is "children" here, where the honour is the family's, and "sons" for the sons of Brutus (.04, .09).
non dubitare, non temere. "Not to doubt", "not to fear": two verbs kept apart (D205).
che di nuovo surge. "That newly rises".
non ci è più potente rimedio, né più valido, né più sano, né più necessario. "There is no more powerful remedy, nor more valid, nor more sound, nor more necessary": four comparatives, each with its own più, as printed. Valido in its older sense, strong, effective; the chapter's last sentence has rimedj validi.
ammazzare i figliuoli di Bruto. "To kill the sons of Brutus": Titus and Tiberius, sons of Lucius Junius Brutus, the first consul, who conspired with young nobles to restore the Tarquins and were put to death in their father's sight (Livy 2.3–5). La libertà di quel Popolo pareva che fusse diventata la loro servitù follows Livy 2.3, where the young men complain that the liberty of others has been turned into their servitude.
straordinariamente. "Extraordinarily": outside the orders (D151). Under the kings the young nobles could avail themselves beyond the laws; under the consuls they could not.
per via di libertà o per via di Principato. "By the path of liberty or by the path of principate": via, path (D131); Principato, principate (D76).
fa uno Stato di poca vita. "Makes a state of little life": I.11's princes were "of short life" (di corta vita).
Vero è che io giudico infelici quelli Principi. "It is true that I judge unhappy those princes": infelice, unhappy (glossary infelicità). The concession is Machiavelli's judgment in the first person, not a maxim; the rule that follows (perché) is its ground.
l'universale. "The generality": the people at large, against "the few". Guicciardini's I.2 has bene universale; the adjective returns at .08, "the universal security".
e quanta più crudeltà usa, tanto diventa più debole il suo Principato. "And the more cruelty he uses, the weaker becomes his principate": the postposed subject lands last, as printed (D18). The 1554 edition reads quanto piu crudelta, adverb for adjective, same sense (NM-DISC-I16-D007; D217).
il maggiore rimedio che si abbia. "The greatest remedy there is": the 1554 edition reads di maggior rimedio (NM-DISC-I16-D008).
questo discorso sia disforme dal soprascritto. "This discourse be unlike the above-written": the chapter has argued of a state newly free, and since .05 has spoken of princes; Machiavelli marks the turn as a digression. The 1554 edition makes the prince "a very good prince" (di uno buonissimo Prencipe, NM-DISC-I16-D009).
per non avere a tornare più in su questa materia. "So as not to have to turn again upon this matter": D61's "be to" cannot stand after "so as not to", and the infinitive keeps "have to" (as D101 recorded for the passive). Elsewhere avere a is "be to": dove si abbia a rifuggire, "where it is to take refuge" (.01); hanno a tenere vie straordinarie, "have to hold extraordinary paths" (.05), where "be to" misreads necessity as appointment (D261); abbiano ... a contentarsi (.08).
Volendo pertanto un Principe ..., dico. "A prince, on that account, wishing ..., I say": the gerund's subject is left without a verb, and dico takes over. Pertanto, "on that account" (D98).
cagione che sia servo. "The cause that it is a servant": the people's servitude, in the chapter's word.
riavere la sua libertà. "To have back its liberty": here and at .08, and only there, the liberty is the people's, sua: the liberty it desires, not the liberty a state has.
Clearchus. Clearchus of Heraclea on the Black Sea, tyrant from 364 BC. Justin (16.4–5) has him recalled from exile by the senate of Heraclea to put down the plebs, and then turn to the plebs and seize and kill the senators. Machiavelli's optimates and his tyrant who cuts them "to pieces" are his compression. Guicciardini calls it puerile to believe that Clearchus killed the optimates to satisfy the people (Guicciardini .05).
occorse che. "It occurred that": occorrere, of the currere family (D01), here in its plain sense of a thing that happens.
gli Ottimati, de' Popolari, dei Grandi. "The optimates", "of the popular men", "of the great": D76, D118. The optimates and the great are one class named twice.
ad un tratto. "At a stroke".
presa sopra questo conveniente occasione. "A fitting occasion for this being taken": conveniente, the adjective of convenire, "be fitting" (D85).
una delle voglie. "One of the longings": voglia, longing (D117), against desiderio, desire, which frames the two things the people wants (.06, .08).
non potendo il Principe satisfarli. "The prince, not being able to satisfy them": the plural is the people as men, as in "make them desire".
ai gradi del comandare non aggiungono mai quaranta o cinquanta cittadini. "To the degrees of commanding there never attain forty or fifty citizens": that is, never as many as forty or fifty. Grado, degree (glossary).
o con levarli via. "Either by removing them": levare via, remove (D131). The alternative is honours enough to content them.
abbiano in buona parte a contentarsi. "They are in good part to content themselves": avere a, "be to" (D61).
si comprenda la sicurtà universale. "The universal security is comprised": sicurtà, security (glossary), the chapter's word for what the many want.
per accidente nissuno. "By no accident": the rubric's word.
comincerà in breve tempo a vivere sicuro e contento. "It will begin in a short time to live secure and content": the subject could be the prince or the people; the English takes the people, which wants to live secure (.08) and lives so in France.
il Regno di Francia. "The kingdom of France": Machiavelli returns to France and its laws elsewhere in the Discorsi and in The Prince, chapter 19.
per essersi quelli Re obbligati ad infinite leggi. "Through those kings' having bound themselves to infinite laws": obbligarsi, to bind oneself. The glossary's obbligato → "indebted" (D204) is the adjective of a debt; this is the reflexive verb, and "indebted to infinite laws" does not say what Machiavelli says. Ruled by David as D229.
dell'arme e del danajo facessero a loro modo. "Should do with arms and with money in their own way".
altrimenti ... che le leggi si ordinassero. "Otherwise than as the laws were ordered": passive si with le leggi as subject, the imperfect subjunctive by sequence after volle che; the agent is not named.
conviene che si assicuri. "It is fitting that it secure itself": convenire, D85. The dislocated subject (Quello Principe adunque o quella Repubblica ...) is kept.
Sendo pertanto il Popolo romano ancora non corrotto quando ei ricuperò la libertà. "The Roman people, on that account, being still not corrupted when it recovered liberty": pass A doubted the first letter of ei on p. 80, outside the D199 sample; read ei with the 1554 quando ei recupero (D203(a), D217; NM-DISC-I16-D010).
morti i figliuoli di Bruto, e spenti i Tarquinj. "The sons of Brutus slain and the Tarquins extinguished": morto transitive, slain (D262). Guicciardini's reply has the equality of the citizens "not altogether extinguished" (non si spegne, Guicciardini .02).
che altra volta si sono discorsi. "That have another time been discoursed": discorrere (D01). The 1554 edition reads altre uolte, "other times" (NM-DISC-I16-D011; D217).
Ma se fusse stato ..., né in Roma, né altrove si trovavano rimedj validi. "But had that people been corrupted, neither in Rome nor elsewhere would valid remedies have been found": the imperfect indicative in a contrary-to-fact condition (D47).
come nel seguente capitolo mostreremo. "As in the following chapter we shall show": I.17, on a corrupted people come to liberty. Guicciardini did not answer it.
Un popolo uso a vivere sotto un principe, se per qualche accidente diventa libero, con difficultà mantiene la libertà
A people used to living under a prince, if by some accident it becomes free, maintains liberty with difficulty Canestrini's setting of the chapter title, without a stop: Machiavelli's rubric in lower case. It is heading apparatus, not Guicciardini's (D32).
Argument. A distinction first. Guicciardini makes a very great difference between a people that has never known liberty and a people that was free once and lost liberty by some accident. The second takes up the orders of liberty more readily: while there still live those who saw it, its memorials remain, and the desire of liberty burns more in men who have tried the ills of tyranny, the more so if they recovered it with arms, driven by servitude, rather than because the tyrants' line failed. Such a people loves liberty more and is easier in taking up the orders of republics. And the matter is more disposed, because a city always under a principate has great inequality among its citizens, which is contrary to the liberties, under which men are quite equal.
Cross-reference. Machiavelli's chapter is of a people "used to living under a prince" Machiavelli .01, and he limits it to peoples not altogether corrupted Machiavelli .02; Guicciardini cuts the case differently, by the people's history, and takes up Machiavelli's "matter", making equality what disposes it. The rubric's "by some accident" is turned from the getting of liberty to its loss.
Argument. Inequality, and an objection. Under a principate some are very great, others small, because the prince, from need or from conformity of spirit, has a circle of men who come almost nearer to the prince than to a private man. But such inequality, he says, is found only after very long servitude, since usurpers commonly keep the image of liberty and govern the tyranny after the use of a republic, so that the equality of the citizens is not altogether extinguished. Then he raises Rome against himself: the Romans had never known liberty and kept it. His answer is threefold. They changed nothing but the transfer of the kings' power to the consuls, and if those orders were good, that arose not so much from the Romans' prudence as from the good fortune that the kingdom's orders were such as served liberty as well; the creation of the consuls itself is believed to have come from Servius Tullius' commentaries, and the other orders were made over time, pressed by necessity and taught by experience. They had felt the injuries of tyranny under Tarquinius. And it is a lesser marvel that they inclined to liberty, since almost all their neighbours were free.
History. Livy 1.60 has the first two consuls created by the centuriate assembly according to the commentaries of Servius Tullius, Rome's sixth king. The tribunes and the other magistracies came later, in the conflicts of the orders.
Cross-reference. Machiavelli's Rome kept its liberty because it was not yet corrupted: the sons of Brutus killed, the Tarquins extinguished, and the remedies and orders discussed elsewhere Machiavelli .09. Guicciardini accounts for the same success by the kings' orders kept (by fortune more than prudence), by later orders made under necessity and experience, by the experience of Tarquinius, and by free neighbours. He does not dispute that Rome was not yet corrupted.
Argument. The remedy is an order. A liberty newly acquired is hard to conserve, much harder for a people long in servitude; the best remedy is a tempered government, with vigour to put down whoever machinates against liberty, secure for those who wish to live well, not inclined to beat down the rich and powerful without cause, and easy in receiving the friends of the tyranny when their bearings or conditions give hope that they will not be enemies of liberty. It happens many times, he says, and "we have seen the experience of it in Florence", that when the government after a tyranny is reasonable, well ordered and secure for all, those who were able to do much with the tyrants content themselves within it, above all where the appetite of liberty is natural: having substance, as the favoured most often do, and having perhaps known the vexations of servitude from closer than others, they rest and enjoy their own once they find security and equal condition. Securing such men pacifies and unites a city; suspicion and harassment leave it no rest, whether they are kept in or driven out.
History. The Florentine experience is most likely the republic of 1494–1512, which kept within it many who had served the Medici.
Cross-reference. This is the reply's answer to Machiavelli's partisan enemies, who, deprived of the capacity to avail themselves, "cannot live content" Machiavelli .03: received and secure, says Guicciardini, they "content themselves". Machiavelli's remedy against the same men was to secure oneself of them and kill the sons of Brutus Machiavelli .04.
Argument. Rigour and restraint in one design. The republic must be prompt, rigid and inexorable against whoever machinates against the state, taking up as most grave even faults that seem light; but it must persecute no one on simple suspicion, nor suspect those who had standing under the tyrant so much as men restless by nature, men fallen into poverty, and those who can hope for standing only under a tyrant. Above all it must guard against divisions, which arise whenever the government is not well ordered, because in divisions the weaker party throws itself to the tyrant, even if it was his enemy. Florence is the proof, twice: the Medici were put back in 1512 not by their old friends but by many who had been enemies, and the bitter, indiscriminate persecution "after [15]26" of those who had been their friends made many desire their return who would otherwise have abhorred it. The new liberty must not desire sons of Brutus to acquire reputation and terror (an emended reading, D214) by severity: although in like cases it is necessary to put hand into blood, it would have been better not to have had the necessity, and that Brutus had not had sons, than to have them so as to have to kill them. And it must count as sons of Brutus only those restless by nature, the rapacious, and those who have not the quality to have a place in liberty, not men accommodated with substance and quality who can hope to feel its fruits.
History. The Medici returned to Florence in September 1512 behind a Spanish army, after Piero Soderini had been forced out by young men of the great families. They were expelled again in May 1527, and the last republic, under pressure of war, proceeded with increasing severity against those suspected of favouring them; Guicciardini, who had served the Medici popes, was himself proceeded against. The Medici returned in 1530 after the siege. Canestrini prints 26, which the 1933 edition takes as a year; the expulsion was in May 1527, so the figure may be Guicciardini's slip or loose reckoning. The persecution he means is the last republic's.
Cross-reference. Machiavelli called killing the sons of Brutus the most powerful, valid, sound and necessary remedy Machiavelli .04. Guicciardini grants the necessity in such cases and refuses the wish for the occasion; the sons of Brutus become a narrow class, not a thing to be wished for.
Argument. The prince, with the enmity divided by its root. If the people is the prince's enemy through oppression and the bitterness of servitude, it is easy to provide for: remove the injuries and govern justly and humanely. If the root is the desire of liberty, as in Florence, which wanted to be free so as to partake of the honours and have a hand in the government, no sweetness or good treatment eradicates it, and the tyrant can never trust it. It is true that the ill-treated, desperate, seek the occasions and the others wait for them; but when the occasions come, good government avails the tyrant nothing, nor having done as Clearchus did, of whom it is puerile to believe that he killed the optimates to satisfy the people: had they been his friends he would have gained little; what is to be believed is that, holding them suspect and wishing to oppress them, he gave the deed the colour of pleasing the people. The remedy the prince has is either partisans of such quality that they can oppress the people, or to beat down and annihilate the people and bring in new inhabitants who will have no cause to desire liberty. It is stated as the remedy, without comment. He speaks of a prince, of a tyrant once the root is the desire of liberty, and of a prince again for the remedy; Machiavelli too restricted his digression to princes become tyrants of their fatherland.
Cross-reference. Machiavelli divided the people's desire for liberty between the few who want to command and the many who want security, and thought the many could be satisfied by laws Machiavelli .08; Guicciardini's Florence wants liberty for what Machiavelli gave the few, honours and a hand in government. Machiavelli's Clearchus resolved to free himself from the vexation of the great and gain the people, and so satisfied the people's longing for vengeance Machiavelli .07; Guicciardini's suspicion is near the first motive, and what he calls puerile is the belief that the killing was done for the people. Where the enmity comes from oppression, he agrees that just and humane government provides for it. Where its root is the desire of liberty, the case Machiavelli says can be met only in part, the remedy Machiavelli sought, to make the people a friend Machiavelli .05, becomes partisans made to oppress it, in the same reflexive verb (farsi).
Established from Canestrini 1857, Opere inedite vol. 1, pp. 1–65 (WIT-FG-CONS-1857-CANESTRINI) — the editio princeps, which governs. Collated against Palmarocchi 1933 (WIT-FG-CONS-1933-PALMAROCCHI): page images and the Wikisource transcription consulted as collation evidence, not reproduced (LICENSE §5).
della antica republica È ancora → della antica republica. È ancora (FG-CONS.1.16.01). Sentence break with a capital; neither pass sees a point; the 1933 edition prints one. D67.
che al privato È adunque → che al privato. È adunque (FG-CONS.1.16.02). Sentence break with a capital; neither pass sees a point; the 1933 edition prints one. D67.
in molto lunghissima servitù: perché → in molto lunghissima servitù; perché (FG-CONS.1.16.02). Both readers doubt the mark between colon and semicolon; the 1933 edition prints a semicolon. D110.
la immagine della libertà; e secondo → la immagine della libertà, e secondo (FG-CONS.1.16.02). Pass A ⟨;|,⟩, pass B ⟨,|;⟩; the 1933 edition prints a comma. D110.
la equalità de' cittadini Né → la equalità de' cittadini. Né (FG-CONS.1.16.02). Sentence break with a capital; neither pass sees a point; the 1933 edition prints one. D67.
si riposano e godono il suo E lo → si riposano e godono il suo. E lo (FG-CONS.1.16.03). Sentence break with a capital; neither pass sees a point; the 1933 edition prints one. D67.
né se si cacciano fuora → né se si cacciano fuora. (FG-CONS.1.16.03). Paragraph end; neither pass sees a point; the 1933 edition prints one. D67.
se ne può fidare È bene → se ne può fidare. È bene (FG-CONS.1.16.05). Pass A sees no point, pass B a faint one; the 1933 edition prints it. D110.
per compiacere al populo Il remedio → per compiacere al populo. Il remedio (FG-CONS.1.16.05). Sentence break with a capital; neither pass sees a point; the 1933 edition prints one. D67.
acquistare riputazione e [terrore] con la severità. The 1857 witness reads acquistare riputazione e tenere con la severità. The 1933 witness reads acquistare riputazione e terrore con la severità. Both cold readers read tenere without doubt. As printed the infinitive has no object and the period barely construes; reputation and terror are what severity acquires. The scan prints rr as n and e o-shaped (D145). Emended under D68, as D126 and D200 (D214).
ma imparata da' Commentarii di Servio Tullio — 1857. The 1933 witness reads ma imparata de' commentari di Servio Tullio. Learned from the Commentaries, against learned of them. Both readers read da' without doubt; it construes, so D38 (D216).
chi machinassi contro la libertà — 1857. The 1933 witness reads chi machinassi contro alla libertà. Same sense.
a battere e' ricchi e i potenti — 1857. The 1933 witness reads a battere e' ricchi e potenti. Canestrini repeats the article: the rich and the powerful as two classes.
e alla quiete della città, gli feciono in progresso di tempo — 1857. The 1933 witness reads ed alla quiete della città, ma gli feciono in progresso di tempo. Palmarocchi's ma makes the contrast explicit; Canestrini leaves the main clause unannounced.
perché nelle divisioni quelli della parte che può manco, si gettano al tiranno — 1857. The 1933 witness reads perché nelle divisione quella parte che può manco, si gettano al tiranno. Canestrini's plural subject agrees with si gettano; Palmarocchi's collective quella parte takes the plural by sense.
e il perseguitare doppo il 26 ... ha fatto desiderare — 1857. The 1933 witness reads ed el perseguitare doppo el '26 ... hanno fatto desiderare. Canestrini's singular agrees with il perseguitare. Same sense.
delle republiche, e anche. The 1857 witness reads delle republiche, [e/a] anche (a damaged letter). The 1933 witness reads delle republiche, ed anche. Both cold readers doubted whether the letter is e or a; a anche does not construe, and the 1933 edition reads ed anche. Read e (D215).
sicurtà e condizione equale. The 1857 witness reads sicurtà e condizion[e/a] equale (a damaged letter). The 1933 witness reads sicurtà e condizione equale. Both cold readers doubted the final letter; condiziona is not a word here, and the 1933 edition reads condizione. Read condizione (D215).
Orthography, capitalization, word division and punctuation follow the governing witness throughout; no reading is hybridized between witnesses.
Io fo in questo Discorso grandissima differenza. "I make in this Discourse a very great difference": Discorso is Machiavelli's chapter, capitalised by Canestrini, as again at .05 (tocco nel Discorso). The difference is Guicciardini's, and Machiavelli does not draw it: his chapter is of a people "used to living under a prince", and its example, Rome, had lived under kings. One of the two readers doubted whether the first word is Io or lo; the other read Io, as does the 1933 edition.
da uno populo ... a uno populo. "Between a people ... and a people": differenza da ... a.
per qualche accidente. "By some accident": the rubric's phrase, turned to the losing of liberty rather than its getting.
si possono ripigliare più facilmente gli ordini della libertà. "The orders of liberty can be taken up again more readily": ripigliare, again at .01 and, in its other sense, at .04 (ripigliando per peccati gravissimi, "taking up as most grave sins"), where to take up is to rebuke. One English verb for one Italian verb in two senses (D224).
restando molte memorie. "Many memorials remaining": memorie as Machiavelli's memorie delle antiche Istorie, "the memorials of the ancient histories" (Machiavelli .01). The two readers split on the final vowel (molta/molte); read molte with the 1933 edition (D215).
È ancora più acceso nel petto degli uomini il desiderio della libertà. "Still more kindled in the breast of men is the desire of liberty": the postposed subject is kept (D18).
avendo provato e' mali della tirannide. "Having tried the ills of tyranny": the gerund's subject is the men, not the desire. Provare, "try", in its older sense, to experience; again at .02 (l'avere provato le ingiurie). Male, ill (glossary).
per essere mancata la linea de' tiranni. "Through the line of the tyrants having failed": mancare, fail (D206), as again at .02 (Né mancò a' Romani).
acerbità, acerbissima, acerbamente. "Bitterness", "most bitter", "bitterly": one root, at .01, .02, .04 and .05.
con le armi. "With arms". Canestrini's note on this sentence, on the despotisms of every age, is his, and is not carried.
Costoro e amano ... e sono più facili. "These both love ... and are easier": facile as the glossary (D27).
la materia. "The matter": Machiavelli's word (Machiavelli .02), taken up and given a cause: matter is disposed to liberty where citizens are equal.
alle libertà sotto le quali sono gli uomini assai equali. "To the liberties, under which men are quite equal": the plural, a free city's liberties, as chi occupa le libertà at .02.
per conformità di animo. "From conformity of spirit": animo, spirit (glossary).
uno cerchio di uomini. "A circle of men": cerchio, as Machiavelli's I.7 (D150).
si accostano quasi più al principe, che al privato. "Approach almost more to the prince, than to the private [man]": nearer the prince's condition than a private man's, or nearer the prince himself; the English leaves both. Privato, a man without office.
la quale non può essere ... in molto lunghissima servitù. "Which [inequality] cannot be ... in a very exceedingly long servitude": la quale is the inequality, which the English names in brackets so that "which" cannot attach to "principate". Such inequality is found only after very long servitude, because usurpers keep the image of liberty (perché ... e però). The Italian doubles the intensive (molto on a superlative), and so does the English.
chi occupa le libertà. "Whoever occupies the liberties": occupare, occupy (glossary), as Machiavelli's I.9 occupare la tirannide.
per disperare manco il populo, per violentare manco le cose. "So as to drive the people less to despair, so as to do less violence to things": disperare transitive. Its root returns at .05: men ill treated "come into despair", and "whoever is desperate" seeks the occasions.
secondo la superficie delle cose. "According to the surface of things": superficie as FG I.7 (D146).
a uso di republica. "After the use of a republic": uso, use (D41).
non si spegne al tutto. "Is not altogether extinguished": Machiavelli's Tarquins were "extinguished" (spenti, Machiavelli .09).
Né mi siano allegati in contrario e' Romani. "Nor let the Romans be alleged to me to the contrary": the Romans had lived under kings, so they are the case of a people that never knew liberty, and yet kept it. The objection is Guicciardini's to his own distinction, and he answers it three ways: they changed nothing but the kings' power, and if those orders were good it was fortune more than prudence; they had felt the injuries of tyranny under Tarquinius; and their neighbours were free.
dal transferire la potestà de' re a' consuli in fuora. "Apart from transferring the power of the kings to the consuls": potestà, power (D78). The two readers split on the apostrophe of a' (a/a'); read a' with the 1933 edition, a dropped apostrophe as D72 (D215).
e' quali se furono buoni, non nacque tanto da prudenza loro. "Which, if they were good, it arose not so much from their prudence": the relative opens and a new construction finishes, and the English keeps the break. Nascere, arise (D04).
imparata da' Commentarii di Servio Tullio. "Learned from the Commentaries of Servius Tullius": Livy 1.60 has the first two consuls created by the centuriate assembly "according to the commentaries of Servius Tullius". Both readers read da', "from"; the 1933 edition reads de' commentari, "of the commentaries". Da' construes and is kept (D216; FG-CONS-I16-D002).
gli feciono in progresso di tempo stretti dalla necessità e ammaestrati dalla esperienza. "They made them in progress of time, pressed by necessity and taught by experience": the object is fronted and taken up by gli, and the English keeps both. The tribunes, the subject of Guicciardini's I.3, I.5 and I.6, are among these later orders. The 1933 edition has ma before gli feciono (FG-CONS-I16-D005).
quell'altro aculeo. "That other goad": of the two things that kindle a people once free (.01), the memory of liberty the Romans lacked; the experience of tyranny they had.
sotto Tarquinio. "Under Tarquinius": Tarquinius Superbus.
e' quali esempli muovono e infiammano. "Which examples move and inflame": esemplo, example (glossary).
È adunque difficile. "It is, then, difficult": both readers doubted the accent on the capital; read È with the 1933 edition (D215). It opens the third printed paragraph.
conservare. "Conserve" (glossary), against Machiavelli's preservare, "preserve", and mantenere, "maintain".
il migliore remedio. "A better remedy": rimedio, remedy, Machiavelli's word (Machiavelli .04, .05). Guicciardini's remedy is an order, not a killing.
in modo temperato. "In a tempered way": temperato as FG I.12's complessione temperata (D25).
vivacità. "Vigour" (D223): the cognate "vivacity" now means liveliness of manner; the word is the government's quickness and force to put down a conspirator.
da uno canto ... da altro. "On the one hand ... on the other hand": da altro as the glossary (D24).
chi machinassi contro la libertà. "Whoever should machinate against liberty": machinare, as FG I.7 (D154), and at .04 against the state. The 1933 edition reads contro alla libertà (FG-CONS-I16-D003).
a battere e' ricchi e i potenti. "To beat down the rich and the powerful": Canestrini repeats the article, two classes; the 1933 edition reads e' ricchi e potenti (FG-CONS-I16-D004). Battere returns at .05, of the prince who beats the people down.
e' portamenti loro. "Their bearings": how they carry themselves.
che non abbino a essere inimici. "That they are not to be enemies": avere a, "be to" (D61). Inimico, "enemy", Guicciardini's form of Machiavelli's nimico.
e n'abbiamo visto la esperienza in Firenze. "And we have seen the experience of it in Florence": most likely the republic of 1494–1512, which received citizens who had served the Medici. Esperienza is the same word as at .02, "taught by experience".
che quando ..., che quelli. "That when ..., that those": the pleonastic che is kept (D136).
che hanno potuto co' tiranni. "Who have been able [to do much] with the tyrants": potere kept a verb, as la parte che può manco, "the party that can do less" (.04); "power" is potestà's (.02).
trovandosi buone facultà. "Finding themselves [with] good substance": facultà of property, substance (D198), as at .04 (accommodati di facultà).
d'appresso. "More nearly": from closer at hand.
e' fastidii della servitù. "The vexations of servitude": fastidio, Machiavelli's word for what the great were to Clearchus (Machiavelli .07).
vi si contentano dentro ..., godono il suo. "Content themselves within it ..., enjoy their own": the reply's answer to Machiavelli's partisan enemies, who, the capacity of availing themselves taken away, "cannot live content" (Machiavelli .03). Received and secure, says Guicciardini, the tyranny's friends content themselves; Florence is his experience of it. Machiavelli's common utility of free living is "to be able to enjoy freely one's own things" (Machiavelli .03).
E lo assicurare. "And the securing": one reader doubted the capital's accent, the other read E, as does the 1933 edition. The conjunction construes; È would not. Assicurare, secure, Machiavelli's verb (Machiavelli .04, .05, .08, .09): here the republic secures the men it suspects, rather than securing itself against them.
riposare, si riposano. "Rest": the men rest and enjoy their own; suspicion does not let the city rest.
né se si tengono dentro, né se si cacciano fuora. "Neither if they are kept within nor if they are driven out".
ripigliando per peccati gravissimi etiam quelli che paino leggieri. "Taking up as most grave sins even those that seem light": ripigliare per, to take a fault up as. Etiam is Latin, as in FG I.3.
non perseguiti alcuno per semplice sospetto. "Let it not persecute anyone on simple suspicion": perseguitare, persecute, again at .04 of the Florentine persecuting. Machiavelli's common utility of free living is to enjoy one's own "without any suspicion" (senza alcuno sospetto, Machiavelli .03); sospetto returns at .03 (l'avergli a sospetto) and .05 (avendogli sospetti).
che hanno avuto condizione sotto il tiranno. "Who have had condition under the tyrant": standing, place. The word returns twice in the period and at .03 ("a condition equal to the other citizens").
inquieti. "Restless": twice, here and in the sons of Brutus whom Guicciardini allows.
Guardisi sopra tutto che nella città non nascan divisioni. "Let it beware above all things that in the city divisions do not arise": nascere, arise (D04), twice in the period. Sopra tutto, "above all things", kept apart from massime, "above all" (.03; glossary).
quelli della parte che può manco. "Those of the party that can do less": the 1933 edition reads quella parte (FG-CONS-I16-D006).
rimettere e' Medici in Firenze nel 12. "That made the Medici be put back into Florence in [15]12": the century is supplied (D79). The Medici returned in September 1512 behind a Spanish army, and young men of the great families forced Piero Soderini out. Canestrini's note on this sentence, on 1512 and 1530, is his, and is not carried.
il perseguitare doppo il 26. "The persecuting after [15]26": the century supplied as for nel 12 (D79, D225); the 1933 edition prints '26. The persecution Guicciardini means is the last republic's, which expelled the Medici in May 1527 and proceeded against their friends; the number may be his slip. Guicciardini was himself among those the republic proceeded against. The 1933 edition has hanno fatto for ha fatto (FG-CONS-I16-D007).
la ritornata loro. "Their return": the Medici's. The Italian says the persecution has made it desired, not that it has happened.
Non desideri la nuova libertà che vi sian figliuoli di Bruto. "Let the new liberty not desire that there be sons of Brutus in it": Machiavelli's remedy (Machiavelli .04), refused as a thing to be wished for.
riputazione e [terrore]. "Reputation and terror": both readers read tenere, which leaves the infinitive without an object; the 1933 edition reads terrore. Emended under D68 (D214; FG-CONS-I16-D001). The English follows the emended text.
mettere mano nel sangue. "Put hand into blood".
sarebbe stato meglio ..., che averne per avergli ammazzare. "It would have been better ... than to have them so as to have to kill them": the preference stands under the concession se bene in simili casi è necessario mettere mano nel sangue, "although in like cases it is necessary to put hand into blood". Both readers doubted the last letter of averne (averno); read with the 1933 edition (D215). Avergli ammazzare is avere a without the a; D61's "be to" will not go after "so as", and the English has "have to". Ammazzare, kill (D169), Machiavelli's verb.
Né abbi in concetto de' figliuoli di Bruto. "Nor let it hold in the conception of sons of Brutus": the sons of Brutus become a class, and Guicciardini narrows it to the restless and rapacious.
periculosi. "Dangerous": pericolo, danger (glossary), as periculo at .05.
accommodati di facultà e di qualità. "Accommodated with substance and with quality": the verb of the Romans who "accommodated themselves" to liberty (.02).
sentire e' frutti della libertà. "Feel the fruits of liberty": the verb of l'avere sentito sotto Tarquinio acerbissima servitù, "the having felt under Tarquinius a most bitter servitude" (.02).
poi che questo anche è tocco nel Discorso. "Since this too is touched on in the Discourse": Machiavelli's prince who would gain a people that is his enemy (Machiavelli .06–.08).
nel nostro di Firenze. "In our [people] of Florence": libero is masculine, so the noun understood is populo.
per participare degli onori. "So as to partake of the honours": participare here takes di and is intransitive, the sense of partecipare di (glossary, "partake of"), not D28's transitive "impart".
nessuna dolcezza, nessuna mansuetudine, nessuno buono trattamento. "No sweetness, no mansuetude, no good treatment": three nouns, each with its negative. Dolcemente, "sweetly", returns of the tyrant's governing.
se ne può fidare. "Trust it": ne is the people, or its desire; the English keeps "it" open. The one reader who saw the stop after fidare saw it faint; supplied with the 1933 edition (D110). Both readers doubted ne (ne/no); read ne with the 1933 edition (D215).
È bene vero. "It is indeed true": as Machiavelli's Vero è che io giudico, "It is true that I judge" (Machiavelli .05), a concession. Both readers doubted the accent; read È with the 1933 edition (D215).
non si precipitano. "Do not throw themselves headlong".
le quali quando vengono, non giova al tiranno. "Which, when they come, it does not avail the tyrant": the relative opens and is not finished; the English keeps it.
e avere fatto come Clearco. "And to have done as Clearchus": Machiavelli's example (Machiavelli .07).
del quale è puerile credere che ammazzassi gli ottimati per satisfare al populo. "Of whom it is puerile to believe that he killed the optimates to satisfy the people": Machiavelli wrote that Clearchus resolved to free himself from the vexation of the great and gain the people, and cut the optimates to pieces "to the extreme satisfaction of the popular men" (Machiavelli .07). Guicciardini does not deny the killing or the satisfaction; he denies the motive.
ma che ... déssi colore di farlo per compiacere al populo. "But that ... he gave colour of doing it to please the people": the second che hangs on credere. Colore, a pretext. Canestrini accents déssi, "gave".
farsi partigiani di qualità che siano potenti. "To make himself partisans of such quality that they are powerful": di qualità che as twice before in the reply (.04, .05). Machiavelli's "partisan enemies and not partisan friends" (Machiavelli .03) answered in its own word, and his greatest remedy, "to make the people one's friend" (farsi il Popolo amico, Machiavelli .05), turned in the same reflexive verb: the prince makes himself partisans to oppress the people. Qualità, quality (glossary), five times in the reply.
annichilare. "Annihilating".
introducere nuovi abitatori. "To introduce new inhabitants": abitatori as FG I.1 (D63). The unit ends with a stop.