feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/shmoop/The Prince/section_26_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: The Prince.chapter 26
feat_summary_id: chapter 26
feat_summary: {"name": "Chapter 26", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210420060055/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/prince-machiavelli/summary/chapter-26", "summary": "At the end of it all, Machiavelli has an appeal to Lorenzo de' Medici. Please take over Italy. Pretty please! It goes a little something like this: It's time for a new ruler. If he wants to, Medici can be like Moses, Cyrus, and all the greats. He can rebuild Italy from its broken down state and be part of the history books. Doesn't that sound sweet? There was one guy who might have been Italy's savior, but well, that didn't work out so well and now look where we are. Italy is ready for someone to save her, and who better than the smart, rich, famous, powerful--and did we mention good-smelling?--Lorenzo de' Medici? Now that he's presumably read the book, Medici has all the knowledge he needs to be a first-rate ruler. God wants him to do it. He has sent miracles. Does he want to displease God? Does he want to get smote? Look at Italy. It's down in the dumps, but its peoples are hard workers. Better than any other country. The best. They just need a leader. Whose name begins with an \"L.\" By the way, Lorenzo, if you haven't gotten it already, if you plan to rule Italy, please establish an army. It's only the right thing to do. Italy can take on the Spanish, it can take on the Swiss--just give it a chance. So, Lorenzo, don't pass up this limited-time offer of ruling Italy. Everyone would love you, everyone would be loyal, and you would be the most adored ruler in the history of Italy. Why would you pass that up? Machiavelli leaves de' Medici with a patriotic quote from Petrarch about taking up arms, and his plea is over.", "analysis": ""}
text: 
  Having carefully considered the subject of the above discourses, and
  wondering within myself whether the present times were propitious to
  a new prince, and whether there were elements that would give an
  opportunity to a wise and virtuous one to introduce a new order of
  things which would do honour to him and good to the people of this
  country, it appears to me that so many things concur to favour a new
  prince that I never knew a time more fit than the present.
  
  And if, as I said, it was necessary that the people of Israel should be
  captive so as to make manifest the ability of Moses; that the Persians
  should be oppressed by the Medes so as to discover the greatness of the
  soul of Cyrus; and that the Athenians should be dispersed to illustrate
  the capabilities of Theseus: then at the present time, in order to
  discover the virtue of an Italian spirit, it was necessary that Italy
  should be reduced to the extremity that she is now in, that she should
  be more enslaved than the Hebrews, more oppressed than the Persians,
  more scattered than the Athenians; without head, without order, beaten,
  despoiled, torn, overrun; and to have endured every kind of desolation.
  
  Although lately some spark may have been shown by one, which made us
  think he was ordained by God for our redemption, nevertheless it was
  afterwards seen, in the height of his career, that fortune rejected him;
  so that Italy, left as without life, waits for him who shall yet heal
  her wounds and put an end to the ravaging and plundering of Lombardy,
  to the swindling and taxing of the kingdom and of Tuscany, and cleanse
  those sores that for long have festered. It is seen how she entreats God
  to send someone who shall deliver her from these wrongs and barbarous
  insolencies. It is seen also that she is ready and willing to follow a
  banner if only someone will raise it.
  
  Nor is there to be seen at present one in whom she can place more hope
  than in your illustrious house,(*) with its valour and fortune, favoured
  by God and by the Church of which it is now the chief, and which could
  be made the head of this redemption. This will not be difficult if you
  will recall to yourself the actions and lives of the men I have named.
  And although they were great and wonderful men, yet they were men, and
  each one of them had no more opportunity than the present offers, for
  their enterprises were neither more just nor easier than this, nor was
  God more their friend than He is yours.
  
       (*) Giuliano de Medici. He had just been created a cardinal
       by Leo X. In 1523 Giuliano was elected Pope, and took the
       title of Clement VII.
  
  With us there is great justice, because that war is just which is
  necessary, and arms are hallowed when there is no other hope but in
  them. Here there is the greatest willingness, and where the willingness
  is great the difficulties cannot be great if you will only follow those
  men to whom I have directed your attention. Further than this, how
  extraordinarily the ways of God have been manifested beyond example:
  the sea is divided, a cloud has led the way, the rock has poured
  forth water, it has rained manna, everything has contributed to
  your greatness; you ought to do the rest. God is not willing to do
  everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory
  which belongs to us.
  
  And it is not to be wondered at if none of the above-named Italians
  have been able to accomplish all that is expected from your illustrious
  house; and if in so many revolutions in Italy, and in so many campaigns,
  it has always appeared as if military virtue were exhausted, this has
  happened because the old order of things was not good, and none of us
  have known how to find a new one. And nothing honours a man more than to
  establish new laws and new ordinances when he himself was newly risen.
  Such things when they are well founded and dignified will make him
  revered and admired, and in Italy there are not wanting opportunities to
  bring such into use in every form.
  
  Here there is great valour in the limbs whilst it fails in the head.
  Look attentively at the duels and the hand-to-hand combats, how superior
  the Italians are in strength, dexterity, and subtlety. But when it comes
  to armies they do not bear comparison, and this springs entirely from
  the insufficiency of the leaders, since those who are capable are not
  obedient, and each one seems to himself to know, there having never been
  any one so distinguished above the rest, either by valour or fortune,
  that others would yield to him. Hence it is that for so long a time,
  and during so much fighting in the past twenty years, whenever there
  has been an army wholly Italian, it has always given a poor account of
  itself; the first witness to this is Il Taro, afterwards Allesandria,
  Capua, Genoa, Vaila, Bologna, Mestri.(*)
  
       (*) The battles of Il Taro, 1495; Alessandria, 1499; Capua,
       1501; Genoa, 1507; Vaila, 1509; Bologna, 1511; Mestri, 1513.
  
  If, therefore, your illustrious house wishes to follow these remarkable
  men who have redeemed their country, it is necessary before all things,
  as a true foundation for every enterprise, to be provided with your
  own forces, because there can be no more faithful, truer, or better
  soldiers. And although singly they are good, altogether they will
  be much better when they find themselves commanded by their prince,
  honoured by him, and maintained at his expense. Therefore it is
  necessary to be prepared with such arms, so that you can be defended
  against foreigners by Italian valour.
  
  And although Swiss and Spanish infantry may be considered very
  formidable, nevertheless there is a defect in both, by reason of which
  a third order would not only be able to oppose them, but might be relied
  upon to overthrow them. For the Spaniards cannot resist cavalry, and the
  Switzers are afraid of infantry whenever they encounter them in close
  combat. Owing to this, as has been and may again be seen, the Spaniards
  are unable to resist French cavalry, and the Switzers are overthrown by
  Spanish infantry. And although a complete proof of this latter cannot
  be shown, nevertheless there was some evidence of it at the battle of
  Ravenna, when the Spanish infantry were confronted by German battalions,
  who follow the same tactics as the Swiss; when the Spaniards, by agility
  of body and with the aid of their shields, got in under the pikes of the
  Germans and stood out of danger, able to attack, while the Germans stood
  helpless, and, if the cavalry had not dashed up, all would have been
  over with them. It is possible, therefore, knowing the defects of both
  these infantries, to invent a new one, which will resist cavalry and not
  be afraid of infantry; this need not create a new order of arms, but
  a variation upon the old. And these are the kind of improvements which
  confer reputation and power upon a new prince.
  
  This opportunity, therefore, ought not to be allowed to pass for letting
  Italy at last see her liberator appear. Nor can one express the love
  with which he would be received in all those provinces which have
  suffered so much from these foreign scourings, with what thirst for
  revenge, with what stubborn faith, with what devotion, with what tears.
  What door would be closed to him? Who would refuse obedience to him?
  What envy would hinder him? What Italian would refuse him homage? To all
  of us this barbarous dominion stinks. Let, therefore, your illustrious
  house take up this charge with that courage and hope with which all
  just enterprises are undertaken, so that under its standard our native
  country may be ennobled, and under its auspices may be verified that
  saying of Petrarch:
  
       Virtu contro al Furore
       Prendera l'arme, e fia il combatter corto:
       Che l'antico valore
       Negli italici cuor non e ancor morto.
  
       Virtue against fury shall advance the fight,
       And it i' th' combat soon shall put to flight:
       For the old Roman valour is not dead,
       Nor in th' Italians' brests extinguished.
  
       Edward Dacre, 1640.
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Chapter 26
target: At the end of it all, Machiavelli has an appeal to Lorenzo de' Medici. Please take over Italy. Pretty please! It goes a little something like this: It's time for a new ruler. If he wants to, Medici can be like Moses, Cyrus, and all the greats. He can rebuild Italy from its broken down state and be part of the history books. Doesn't that sound sweet? There was one guy who might have been Italy's savior, but well, that didn't work out so well and now look where we are. Italy is ready for someone to save her, and who better than the smart, rich, famous, powerful--and did we mention good-smelling?--Lorenzo de' Medici? Now that he's presumably read the book, Medici has all the knowledge he needs to be a first-rate ruler. God wants him to do it. He has sent miracles. Does he want to displease God? Does he want to get smote? Look at Italy. It's down in the dumps, but its peoples are hard workers. Better than any other country. The best. They just need a leader. Whose name begins with an "L." By the way, Lorenzo, if you haven't gotten it already, if you plan to rule Italy, please establish an army. It's only the right thing to do. Italy can take on the Spanish, it can take on the Swiss--just give it a chance. So, Lorenzo, don't pass up this limited-time offer of ruling Italy. Everyone would love you, everyone would be loyal, and you would be the most adored ruler in the history of Italy. Why would you pass that up? Machiavelli leaves de' Medici with a patriotic quote from Petrarch about taking up arms, and his plea is over.