It was not published until 1532, by order of Clement VII., after the death of Machiavelli.
I intend to reserve the _Principe_, considered as the supreme expression of Italian political science, for a separate study; and after the introduction to Macaulay's Essay on Machiavelli, I need hardly enter in detail into a discussion of the various theories respecting the intention of this treatise.[1] Yet this is the proper place for explaining my view about Machiavelli's writings in relation to his biography, and for attempting to connect them into such unity as a mind so strictly logical as his may have designed.
[1] Macaulay's essay is, of course, brilliant and comprehensive.

I do not agree with his theory of the Italian despot, as I have explained on p.

127 of this volume.
Sometimes, too, he indulges in rhetoric that is merely sentimental, as when he says about the dedication of the Florentine History to Clement: 'The miseries and humiliations of dependence, the bread which is more bitter than every other food, the stairs which are more painful than every other ascent, had not broken the spirit of Machiavelli.

_The most corrupting post in a corrupting profession had not depraved the generous heart of Clement._' The sentence I have printed in italics may perhaps tell the truth about the Church and Popes in general; but the panegyric of Clement is preposterous.
Macaulay must have been laughing in his sleeve.
With regard to the circumstances under which the Prince was composed, enough has been already said.

Machiavelli's selfish purpose in putting it forth seems to my mind apparent.