Belfagor machiavellis the prince

Novella by Niccolò Machiavelli written amidst 1518 and 1527

Belfagor arcidiavolo ("Belfagor justness archdaemon") is a novella by Niccolò Machiavelli, written between 1518 and 1527, and first published with his composed works in 1549. The novella comment also known as La favola di Belfagor Arcidiavolo ("The fable of Belfagor the archdaemon") and Il demonio park prese moglie ("The demon who took a wife"). Machiavelli's tale appeared play in an abbreviated version published by Giovanni Brevio in 1545. Giovanni Francesco Straparola included his own version as nobleness fourth story of the second nighttime in his Le piacevoli notti (1557).

The "devil takes a wife" yarn influenced several English works: a secret language of it occurs in the outcome of Rich His Farewell to Belligerent Profession (1581) by Barnabe Rich. Justness popular play Grim the Collier insinuate Croydon (published 1662) shows Machiavelli's way. An English translation of Machiavelli's bradawl was published in London in 1647 as The Devil a Married Man: or The Devil Hath Met fulfil His Match. This was adapted drawn a play called The Devil playing field the Parliament (1648), later followed do without Belphegor, or The Marriage of honesty Devil (1691) by John Wilson. William Makepeace Thackeray produced his own secret language of the tale in the 19th century.

The tale was adapted recognize the 1923 opera Belfagor by Ottorino Respighi. The Belfagor fable was class basis of a poem by Luigi Pirandello. The Romanian writer and comedian Ion Luca Caragiale wrote a replace of the story: in Kir Ianulea, the demon takes the human build of a Greek merchant who arrives in Bucharest. The plot retains similarities with the original, with the framer even mentioning Machiavelli's story.

Synopsis

The recounting derives from Medieval Slavic folklore (and gave birth to a German remarkable North-European version featuring a Friar Rush). In Machiavelli's account, Pluto notes think it over crowds of male souls arrive hobble Hell blaming their wives for their misery. He summons a parliament, which decides to send the former-archangel-now-archdevil Belfagor to the Earth to investigate.

Belfagor assumes a human form as individual Roderigo of Castile, and comes round on Florence with a hundred thousand ducats; he marries a woman named Onesta Donati. Soon, her vanity and prodigal spending, combined with the demands cataclysm her relatives, reduce him to rareness and debt. He flees imprisonment, chased by creditors and magistrates; rescued antisocial the peasant Gianmatteo, Belfagor grants reward rescuer the power to drive devils out of possessed women – which eventually causes major problems for influence peasant himself. In the end, Belfagor gratefully returns to Hell, denouncing class institution of marriage.

References

• Hoenselaars, A. Itemize. "The Politics of Prose and Drama: The Case of Machiavelli's Belfagor." In: The Italian World of English Refreshment Drama: Cultural Exchange and Intertextuality. Interrupt by Michele Marrapodi; Newark, DE, Institute of Delaware Press, 1998.
• Qvortrup, Mads 'Belfagor', Copenhagen, Informations Forlag, with notes add-on introduction
• Scott, Mary Augusta. Elizabethan Translations circumvent the Italian. Baltimore, Modern Language Sect of America, 1895; reprinted New Dynasty, Burt Franklin, 1969.
• Spiering, Menno, and Joep Leerssen, eds. Machiavelli: Figure-Reputation. Yearbook have a high opinion of European Studies, Vol. 8; Amsterdam pivotal Atlanta, Rodopi, 1996.
• Villari, Pasquale. Niccolò Statesman and His Times. Translated by Linda White Mazini Villari; London, Kegan, Uncomfortable, Trench & Co., 1883.

External links