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2 9 8 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n Volume 41 / Issue 3same viewpoint is clear when, after having enjoyed fully the charms of hisbeloved, he abandons his earlier assumption that the good he enjoys is relatedonly adventitiously to the evil from which he suffers, and instead declares,“Blessed be your beauties! Blessed be the time when I set foot in the forest”(IV.132–33). 38 He comes round, that is, to the position articulated by Dante atthe opening of his Comedy (Inf. 1.1–9).The account of the hero’s intimacy with the beautiful woman tells usmore about what stood in the way of that intimacy than about the characterof this union itself. The seemingly naked beauties of the hero’s belovedhave the same effect upon him that would be produced if she were covered in“nettles or brambles” (IV.105)—rather than encouraging his virtue, they renderit inoperative. Why this is the case is the puzzle that chapter 4 proposesfor solution.At the opening of the chapter the hero, to all appearances, accepts theproposals that the beautiful woman has made in regard to the conduct necessaryon his part to endure the malignant times in which he finds himself. Indoing so he seems to suggest that he understands that conduct as followingthe precedent set by Dante: “if I had to go through infernal doors toward thegood of which you spoke, it would please me” (IV.7–8). 39 As we have alreadyindicated, however, the hero will accept the beautiful woman’s recommendationonly with significant qualification and in doing so will depart fromDante’s precedent. Machiavelli’s departure from Dante is signaled by the factthat his hero, though willing like Dante to pass through hell in pursuit ofthe good, is shown in his relations to his beloved to be much more down toearth than Dante in his relations to his. The protagonist of the Comedy nevereats during the course of his journey and drinks but once of waters that areclearly exclusively allegorical in character. He is certainly not permitted toindulge in the pleasures of sex with the one woman who might have enjoyedsuch pleasures with him, namely, Matelda. 40 The hero of The Ass, by contrast,shares a meal with his beloved and then is invited by her to share her bed.The needs and satisfactions of the body will not be neglected in Machiavelli’sPress, 1987), 262–65.38See Discourses, 3.37.139The beautiful woman is so pleased with his declaration that she embraces and kisses him for thefirst time, declaring him to be a “discreet soul” and promising that his suffering will lead him not onlyto the good but, ultimately, to fame and glory (IV.13–18).40Apart from Dante himself, Matelda is the only other living human being encountered within thepages of the Comedy. That the beautiful woman not only stands in for Dante’s Virgil but also, andequally, for Matelda is made clear when one compares IV.109–11 with Purgatorio, 28.70–74.