Note 197 — Chapter XI
Reading edition
From an allusion in act ii. sc. 3, it is clear that the Clizia was composed after the Mandragola. If we assign the latter comedy to a date later than 1512, the year of Machiavelli's disgrace, which seems implied in its prologue, the Clizia must be reckoned among the ripest products of his leisure. The author hints that both of these comedies were suggested to him by facts that had come under his notice in Florentine society.