John Roe: Shakespeare and Machiavelli (Studies in Renaissance Literature, 9).

The repertoire of Machiavellism is still with us. On 19 March 2003 Col. Collins, commander in the Royal Irish Regiment, gave a rousing speech to his troops twenty miles south of the Iraqi border, telling them the “enemy should be in no doubt that we are his nemesis and that we are bringing his rightful destruction”. Resistance from Iraqi soldiers was not to be tolerated: “wipe them out if that is what they choose. But if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory.” The speech, predictably, elicited great media attention and high praise. Prince Charles himself expressed his admiration and congratulated Col. Collins on his “extraordinarily stirring, civilised and humane words” which he saw “in the highest tradition of military leadership”. In actual fact, as keywords of Collins’ rhetoric suggest, this tradition and its hero-model go right back to Niccolò Machiavelli’s notorious Il Principe.

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