King Lear
In 1532 Machiavelli began publishing his works which included The Prince - a guide on how to be an effective ruler. To Shakespeare he was the "murd'rous Machiavel". The Prince according to Fredrick the Great was :"one of the most dangerous works that had ever been poured on the world."
Machiavelli was particularly interested in the ways a nonhereditary princedom might be won. One might rely on Fortune or on Virtu (one's own resources.)
His word "Virtu"' represented a group of specific qualities (which total 'manliness'.) These qualities included courage, strength, resoluteness, practical wisdom and self-reliance.
In the prince's conduct to his relations and friends Machiavelli took a different line from the usual, thinking it better to ask how things are in the real world than how they should be in an ideal one. The truth, according to Machiavelli, was that anyone who tries to be virtuous (in the Christian sense) on all occasions is bound to come to grief among so many who are not virtuous. However, he must know the usefulness of being or appearing to be virtuous. in the Christian sense to get his own way.
"For it can be said of mankind generally, that they are ungrateful, inconstant, pretenders of virtue and concealers of vice, avoiders of danger and lovers of gain; as long -as you help them, they are all yours, and will offer you their 'blood, their property, their lives, and their children ... provided that the crisis is a long way off; when it comes nearer-, they soon turn their backs on you ... Love is maintained by a bond of obligation which men, out of the depravity of their own selfhearts, will break at the first prompting of self interest; but fear is maintained by an apprehension of punishment.."
"Princes who have cared little about good faith, and have used cunning to confuse the minds of men, have achieved great things; so that in the end they have outstripped those who founded themselves in honesty."
Machiavelli explained that there are 2 ways of deciding a contest ;
by law - which is proper to man
by force - which is proper to animals.
But law is often ineffective, and so one must resort to force; one must like the centaur, combine both man and beast. And the beasts take as models the ..
LIONcan scare off wolves
FOXcunning (force) can recognise traps.
He said that those who only play the Lion 'do not know what they are about'
In the play King Lear, Lear suffers in the mind because he is closer to the top of the Chain of Being and therefore closer to God. Gloucester is a parallel to Lear but of a lower order so he suffers of the body.
Lear figuratively speaking cannot see. Gloucester literally cannot see.
NB It is quite appropriate to call Edmund a Machiavel in an essay.