Il Principe

Vertue 'gainst fury shall advance the fight,

And it i' th' combate soone shall put to flight:

For th' old Romane valour is not dead,

Nor in th' Italians brests extinguished.

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (written in 1513, published 1532 in Latin)

Despite the immense amount of work, there is still time for peripheral reading. I am aware that reading Machiavelli cannot be considered as reading for enjoyment to some, it is to one.

It has almost been a year since I have started reading this book, but I haven't seemed to get it over with. It seems that I cannot find the endurance to go through it all, as every line, every sentence has a depth that I myself cannot read into. So for the past months, I have merely been going through non-canonical pages. Reading the details that capture my attention. Tonight, after accomplishing a third of my workload, I came across this ever so intriguing sonnet.

First, let me explain to you in what context this sonnet arises from. The Prince, is one of Machiavelli's most esteemed work as a political theorist. It entails the coming of age of a prince, a prince groomed towards kingship, a prince of royal heritage, a prince first revered then esteemed with allegiance and subordinates.

The sonnet was used as a closure to the book. It depicts, to my understanding, that virtue and valor are the possessions of leaders, not of aristocracy but of pure authority. Virtue, in this context, will bring about the combat/resistance of the Italians against the Barbarians, and their valor will keep them alive and let them fight, until there is no more to fight.

Such noble cause will let them fight and their righteousness and courage will let them fight on. For what is right. For what is theirs'.

Although I am rated as a 'high mach' in the MACH-IV test, I do not aspire to be Machiavellian. I aspire to be among the righteous and the courageous.