simple. To take a single example: the word "intrattenere," employed by
Machiavelli to indicate the policy adopted by the Roman Senate towards
the weaker states of Greece, would by an Elizabethan be correctly
rendered "entertain," and every contemporary reader would understand
what was meant by saying that "Rome entertained the Aetolians and the
Achaeans without augmenting their power." But to-day such a phrase would
seem obsolete and ambiguous, if not unmeaning: we are compelled to say
that "Rome maintained friendly relations with the Aetolians," etc.,
using four words to do the work of one. I have tried to preserve the
pithy brevity of the Italian so far as was consistent with an absolute
fidelity to the sense. If the result be an occasional asperity I can
only hope that the reader, in his eagerness to reach the author's
meaning, may overlook the roughness of the road that leads him to it.

The following is a list of the works of Machiavelli:

Principal works. Discorso sopra le cose di Pisa, 1499; Del modo di
trattare i popoli della Valdichiana ribellati, 1502; Del modo tenuto dal
duca Valentino nell' ammazzare Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo,
etc., 1502; Discorso sopra la provisione del danaro, 1502; Decennale
primo (poem in terza rima), 1506; Ritratti delle cose dell' Alemagna,
1508-12; Decennale secondo, 1509; Ritratti delle cose di Francia, 1510;
Discorsi sopra la prima deca di T. Livio, 3 vols., 1512-17; Il Principe,
1513; Andria, comedy translated from Terence, 1513 (?); Mandragola,
prose comedy in five acts, with prologue in verse, 1513; Della
lingua (dialogue), 1514; Clizia, comedy in prose, 1515 (?); Belfagor
arcidiavolo (novel), 1515; Asino d'oro (poem in terza rima), 1517; Dell'
arte della guerra, 1519-20; Discorso sopra il riformare lo stato di
Firenze, 1520; Sommario delle cose della citta di Lucca, 1520; Vita
di Castruccio Castracani da Lucca, 1520; Istorie fiorentine, 8 books,