Being once perfected how to grant suits,
How to deny them, who t’ advance and who
To trash for over-topping, new created
The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed ’em,
Or else new formed ’em, having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i’ th’ state
To what tune pleased his ear, that now he was
The ivy which had hid my princely trunk
And sucked my verdure out on ‘t.
– William Shakespeare
The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Prospero says that his treacherous brother Antonio used his politial position to assert his power over the government and all the people in it, so that he could make everyone say or so whatever he wanted. Using a metaphor, Prospero says that Antonio was the ivy growing up Prospero’s princely tree, sucking his vitality out of him.