http://www.unt.edu/honors/eaglefeather/2007_Issue/kniatt6.sh... "Machiavelli’s The Prince as a Satire: An Exploratory Look at Machiavelli’s Works to Determine His True Political Inclinations"

Wonderful, thank you very much.

I love Discourses - it is some of most insightful and inspiring writings ever. I feel sad for people who just read The Prince and then dedicated their career towards analyzing Machiavelli's motives and tarnishing the name of Nicollo, while in reality making fools of themselves.

For the record: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2095855

Also as a shameless plug, I have realized that The Prince is a tongue in cheek piece even before reading The Discourses.