ASTUZIA

***NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, whose long argument with Inferno 26 led him to write The Prince, abandoned grace as a form of power. Dante is his fictive interlocutor. John Freccero has said: "Machiavelli knew every inch of Dante." He agreed with Dante that "Virtue conquers Fortune." But Machiavelli believed that power is acquired by manipulation. If we are successful, we think it's because we are good, not that we are good. Luck has favored us. Niccolo imagines "an Other" is a woman, and he suggests to readers of The Prince that they treat her violently: "It is necessary to beat her and jolt her." Fortune will betray the ambitious Prince unless he dominates her. Astuzia, astuteness, life-destroying for Ulysses, becomes a valued quality in the Renaissance. Machiavelli is astute.***

(Extraído de "Dante In Love" de Harriet Rubin)

Prosigo con mi investigación sobre T.S. Eliot, subrayando que el Canto 26 del Inferno era su preferido. Y recuerdo haber visto más referencias sobre T.S. Eliot en "Dante In Love", la vida te da sorpresas...