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"The office becomes a woman best": The Machiavelle in Shakespearean comedy
Abstract
The Machiavels of tragedy are back-stabbing villains who manipulate events and who murder for their own self-aggrandizement. The comedies and romances, however, employ another kind of manipulator, a female "Machiavelle," who is cunning and dissembling, though for benign reasons. Like the traditional Machiavel, these women employ "rare tricks," but of a different order and for different ends. The movement of comedy is toward social and familial reconstruction and the reformation of character, and it is clear from a number of Shakespearean comedies that the office of reconstruction, to paraphrase Paulina in The Winter's Tale, becomes a woman best (2.2.29-30). The reasons why women are best suited for this role are conventional and traditional. Women have traditionally been seen as creators and nurturers both as mothers and in the healing tradition of witchcraft. "Match-making," a favorite intrigue of comedy, has historically been assigned to women. The medieval convention of "Processus Belial" held that, despite the devil's claim of mankind on the grounds of justice, the Blessed Virgin advocated and obtained mercy, just as Portia and Paulina manipulate other systems of "justice" to obtain mercy. There is also a long line of historical and literary women who are strong, yet good, stretching from Boedicia to Britomart, from the Virgin Mary to the Virgin Queen, who provide a model for the Machiavelle. Shakespeare weaves together traditional notions of women with the tradition of the stage Machiavel and the traditions of comedy to create a supreme class of comic dissemblers.
Subject Area
British and Irish literature|Womens studies|Theater
Recommended Citation
Dutcher, James Marshall, ""The office becomes a woman best": The Machiavelle in Shakespearean comedy" (1993). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9329600.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9329600