Though better known today as a political theorist than as a dramatist, Machiavelli secured his fame as a giant in the history of Italian comedy more than fifty years before Shakespeare's comedies delighted English-speaking audiences. This bilingual edition includes all three examples of Machiavelli's comedic art: sparkling translations of his farcical masterpiece, The Mandrake ; of his version of Terence's The Woman From Andros ; and of his Plautus-inspired Clizia --works whose genre afforded Machiavelli a unique vehicle not only for entertaining audiences but for examining virtue amid the twists and turns of fortune .