Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0872209016, Paperback)

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, The Mandrake; of his version of Terence's The Woman From Andros; and of his Plautus-inspired Clizia -- works whose genre afforded Machiavelli a unique vehicle not only for entertaining audiences but for examining virtù amid the twists and turns of fortuna.