tries to attain Lucrezia, his cunning and clever tactics succeed, and it is even Nicia who leads Callimaco (disguised as a common man) to Lucrezia's bedroom. After the conception, Lucrezia is aware of Callimaco's deception, but still accepts him into her private life: "Since your astuteness, my husbands stupidity, my mother's simplicity, and my confessors wickedness have led me to do what I never would have done myself, I’m determined to judge that it comes from heavenly disposition which has so willed; and I don’t have it in me to reject what Heaven wills me to accept. Therefore, I take you as my lord, master, and guide; you are my father, my defender, and I want you to be my every good;" Callimaco's scheming proves successful in the end. Lucrezia attains happiness and order for she is pregnant. While the plot is comic and based in a domestic realm, many scholars have recognized the gaps in the plot and argue that a more careful read of the work "contains dangerous elements of Machiavelli's political teaching." Some theorize that Callimaco is Machiavelli's described leader in The Prince as he follows what is natural to man, to rule, to attain things, and to consolidate power through scheming social and political structures. Just as the passion to rule is common in man, it is an allegory to Callimaco's sexual conquest of Lucrezia. Some argue against this theory, revealing that seduction is not simply a symbol for conspiracy, but that "seduction is seduction to Machiavelli" who believes the two are "virtually interchangeable phenomena". In approaching Mandragola through the political analysis, Lucrezia has been viewed as the "Italy" to be conquered. Her defeat is generally viewed as the fall of a virtuous rule by corrupt means or the upheaval of an ignorant reign to ensure a more stable order. As a virtuous woman, Lucrezia surrenders her virtue not to the charming Callimaco but to the treachery of Timoteo, the corrupt friar, and the stupidity of her husband. Being so, she has the same name as the wife of Collatinus, a character of virtue in Machiavelli's Republic Rome. She also holds the same title as the Lucretia of Ancient Rome who brought kingly rule to end by succumbing to violence. Others rebuke, believing Machiavelli's Lucrezia physically and metaphorically becomes the "mother of a new line of rulers in Florence." Callimaco's quest for power through the conquest