# Curing Virtue: Epicureanism and Erotic Fantasy in Machiavelli’s Mandragola

Michelle T. Clarke. Journal article, 2022.
Political Theory 50, no. 6 (2022): 913–938.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00905917221095859
Author's site: https://michelletclarke.com/

## Summary

Asks why Lucrezia, the heroine of Machiavelli’s comedy Mandragola, is called ‘fit to govern a kingdom.’ Tracing the play’s overlooked borrowings from Lucretius’s De rerum natura, which Machiavelli himself transcribed, and Ovid’s Ars amatoria, it argues that Machiavelli accepts Epicurean hedonism but sides with Ovid against Lucretius in rejecting the idea that happiness requires freedom from illusion. Virtue becomes a kind of seductive skill, and Lucrezia, who orders the competing desires of her household, models a princely art of staging and managing fantasy.

## Topics

- Machiavelli
- Mandragola
- Lucretius
- Ovid
- Epicureanism
- Gender
- Princely virtue

## How to cite

Clarke, Michelle T. “Curing Virtue: Epicureanism and Erotic Fantasy in Machiavelli’s Mandragola.” *Political Theory* 50, no. 6 (2022): 913–938. https://doi.org/10.1177/00905917221095859.

```bibtex
@article{clarke2022curing,
  author    = {Clarke, Michelle T.},
  title     = {{Curing Virtue: Epicureanism and Erotic Fantasy in Machiavelli's \emph{Mandragola}}},
  year      = {2022},
  journal   = {Political Theory},
  volume    = {50},
  number    = {6},
  pages     = {913--938},
  doi       = {10.1177/00905917221095859},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.1177/00905917221095859}
}
```

## Related work by the author

- On the Woman Question in Machiavelli (Review of Politics, 2005): https://michelletclarke.com/articles/woman-question-in-machiavelli.md
- Boni Gone Bad: Cicero’s Critique of Epicureanism in De Finibus I and II (Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought, 2023): https://michelletclarke.com/articles/cicero-de-finibus-epicureanism.md
- Machiavelli’s Virtuous Princes: Rhetoric, Power, and the Politics of Ironic Historiography (Journal of Politics, 2022): https://michelletclarke.com/articles/machiavelli-virtuous-princes.md