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374 IL PRINCIPE.
velli between 1497 and 15o4; then, when Savonarola had been
dead about six years, Machiavelli spoke of him as follows :--
Io dico di quel gran Savonarola
I1 quale afitato da virtfi dlvina
Vi tenne involti eon la sua parola.
Ma perch6 molt1 temean la rmna
Veder della lot patna a poco a poco
Sotto la sua profetica dottrina,
Non m trovava a rmmrvi loco,
Se non cessava, o se non era spento
I1 suo lume divm con maggior foco
[Decennale primo; Op 5 362.1
How are we to account for this change of tone ? Partly no
doubt by the fact that Machiavelli was now writing for the
public, and that, if he were not to bring himself into open
collision with that class of citizens who were still Piagnoni, it
was necessary for him to use the greatest caution in speaking of
Savonarola. In a city so full of political intrigues as Florence,
a public official could only hope to maintain his own position by
offending no one, and Machiavelli was far too shrewd to court
opposition. The above passage is in fact ironical. Under the
mask of apparent eulogy, it is in reality a protest against the
results of Savonarola's teaching, which tended only to keep
the city disunited, and to discourage the inhabitants; at the
moment when union was the one thing needful, Savonarola's
influence made it impossible. The contemptuous words, 'maggior
foco,' with which the argument is clinched, hardly leave
a doubt of Machiavelli's meaning.
Leaving on one side The Prince, and turning to the Diseorsi
[written after I513] , we find the following notices, which show
that, after some ten years in which to form an impartial judgment,
Machiavelli's opinion was still unaltered :--
Discorsi, i. xi : ' A1 popolo di Firenze non pare essere n6 ignorante
n6 rozzo, nondimeno da Frate Girolamo Savonarola fu
persuaso ehe parlava con Dio. Io non voglio giudicare s' egli
era vero o no, perch_ d' un tanto uomo se ne debbe parlare con
riverenza. Ma io dico bene che infiniti lo credevano, senza
aver visto cosa nessuna straordinaria da farlo loro credere;
perch_ la vita sua, la dottrina, il soggetto che prese, erano sufficienti
a fargli prestare fede. 1
Here Machiavelli's tone is more respectful, but the main drift
of the passage does not essentially differ from the words in the