A similar importance is assigned to his staff, for he tells Ferdinand (i. 2):
“I can here disarm thee with this stick,
And make thy weapon drop.”
And when he abjures the practice of magic, one of the requisites is “to break his staff,” and to (v. 1)
“Bury it certain fathoms in the earth.”
The more immediate instruments of power were books, by means of which spells were usually performed. Hence, in the old romances, the sorcerer is always furnished with a book, by reading certain parts of which he is enabled to summon to his aid what demons or spirits he has occasion to employ. When he is deprived of his book his power ceases. Malone quotes, in illustration of this notion, Caliban’s words in “The Tempest” (iii. 2):
“Remember,
First to possess his books; for without them
He’s but a sot, as I am, nor hath not
One spirit to command.”
Prospero, too, declares (iii. 1):
“I’ll to my book;
For yet, ere supper time, must I perform
Much business appertaining.”
And on his relinquishing his art he says that:
“Deeper than did ever plummet sound
I’ll drown my book.”