Niccolo Machiavelli, in his play Mandragola, is trying to instruct his audience in essentially the same way he sought to instruct his readers in The Prince. Machiavelli is a pragmatist who believes that the individual who wishes to acquire power or anything in the world must be willing to do what he needs to do, and must not let himself be restricted by conventional means or traditional morality. The play is specifically about a man's devious means of acquiring the love of a woman, but Machiavelli is essentially concerned with teaching the lesson of ruthless pragmatism in a political context. The politically- and militarily-conscious author of The Prince is not merely writing about the individual longing of a man for a woman, but wants to alter the attitude of his audience in grand and revolutionary ways.
We have a choice to make in interpreting this play. We have to decide if it is merely a diversion from Machiavelli's other clearly serious work, or if it is instead a different approach---through romance, comedy and satire---to the same lessons the author sought to teach in The Prince and other openly political works.
If we want to see it as merely a diversion, Machiavelli gives us the opportunity by beginning the play with a song which suggests that we "follow our desires,/ passing and consuming the years,/ because whoever deprives himself of pleasure,/ to live with anguish and with worries,/ doesn't know the tricks/ of the world" (7). If that is not enough of an invitation to see the play as a "pleasure" and little more, Machiavelli suggests in the Prologue that the play is meant to be a portrait of Italy which will "break your jaws with laughter" (9). He even asks for forgiveness if the play is "not worthy" and too "light" (10). But by the end of the Prologue, Machiavelli seems to be threatening anybody who doesn't take his work seriously or insults him (11).
The play is about Callimaco's love for Lucrezia, who is married...