A Stylistic Analysis of the English Translations of Machiavelli's The Prince: Mansfield, Skinner and Connell

Abstract

The Prince is counted among those political works which gave rise to modern political science. Linguists have shown how the writing technique, that makes The Prince a unique work, is one of the main instruments used by Machiavelli to persuade his addressee to adopt the political tactics he was recommending. On the basis of their Italian studies on The Prince, the paper analyses how Machiavelli’s style was transferred from Italian into English in the most recent and authoritative English translations by Harvey C. Mansfield (1985), Quentin Skinner & Russell Price (1989 [1988]) and William J. Connell (2005). Three significant passages of Machiavelli’s masterpiece and their translations have been examined following the methodological approaches of Malmkjaer (2004) and Baker (2000).