The Prince and "The Bard": Shakespeare's Machiavels

Throughout his career, Shakespeare often employed a predicable plot formula to reinforce Elizabethan morality. Most key outcomes can be foreseen prior to the close of the second act of many of his plays based on the presence of different types of manipulators. Invariably, the various combinations of manipulators - "good" and "bad" - influenced outcomes that supported the Elizabethan morality that reinforced the rightful rule of his royal patrons, Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.