Machiavellian'is a word used realtively often in the English language, to mean someone that is elaborately cunning, scheming or wholly unscrupulous. Funny that an Italian living in the 15th and 16th centuries should lend his name to a word with such meanings. Nicolo Machiavelli was a civil servant who wrote down all of his secrets and resentment when his employment in the Republic came to an end in 1512. Full of phrophetic qualities, political observation and psychological insight, The Prince, read for CSA WORD very fittingly by Ian Richardson, has never lost its incredible power to shock and influence.