<div><p>Though better known today as a political theorist than as a dramatist, Machiavelli secured his fame as a giant in the history of Italian comedy more than fifty years before Shakespeare's comedies delighted English-speaking audiences. This bilingual edition includes all three examples of Machiavelli's comedic art: sparkling translations of his farcical masterpiece, <i>The Mandrake</i>; of his version of Terence's <i>The Woman From Andros</i>; and of his Plautus-inspired <i>Clizia</i>--works whose genre afforded Machiavelli a unique vehicle not only for entertaining audiences but for examining <i>virtue</i> amid the twists and turns of <i>fortune</i>.</p></div>