Machiavelli’s Prince: Better to be Loved or Feared?
When Pulter notes of the lion in line 2 that he “of his Subjects was not lov’d but fear’d” she seems to be evoking Niccolò Machiavelli’s chapter “Of Cruelty, and Clemency, and whether it is better to be belov’d, or feard” from his political treatise The Prince (pp. 128-135). This controversial tract was written in 1513 and first printed in Italian in 1532, though its English translation was not printed until 1640. While Machiavelli counsels a prince to choose being feared (although not hated) over being loved, Pulter’s speaker presents the king not as a politically astute ruler but instead as a selfish tyrant manipulated by a rapacious doctor.
Neverthelesse ought he be judicious in his giving beleefe to any thing, or moving himselfe thereat, nor make his people extreamly affraid of him; but proceed in a moderate way with wisdome, and humanity, that his too much confidence make him not unwary, and his too much distrust intolerable, From hence arises a dispute, whether it is better to be belov’d or feard:
I answer, a man would wish hee might bee the one and the other: but because hardly can they subsist both together, it is much safer to be feard, than be lov’d; being that one of the two must needs faile; for touching men, wee may say this in generall, they are unthankfull, unconstant, dissemblers, they avoyd dangers, and are covetous of gaine; and whilst thou doest them good, they are wholly thine[.] [T]heir blood, their fortunes, lives and children are at thy service, as is said before, when the danger is remote; but when it approaches, they revolt. And that Prince; who wholly relyes upon their words, unfurnishd of all other preparations, goes to wrack: for the friendships that are gotten with rewards, and not by the magnificence and worth of the mind, are dearely bought indeed; but they will neither keep long, nor serve well in time of need: and men doe lesse regard to offend one that is supported by love, than by feare. For love is held by a certainty of obligation, which, because men are mischievous, is broken upon any occasion of their owne profit. But feare restrains with a dread of punishment which never forsaks a man. Yet ought a Prince cause himselfe to be belovd in such a manner, that if hee gaines not love, he may avoyd hatred: for it may well stand together, that a man may bee feard and not hated … I conclude then, returning to the purpose of being feard, and belov’d; insomuch as men love at their owne pleasure and to serve their owne turne, and their feare depends upon the Princes pleasure, every wise Prince ought to ground upon that which is of himselfe, and not upon that which is of another: only this, he ought to use his best wits to avoid hatred, as was said.