PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
19 
aspen. 
(1) O, had the monster seen those lily hands 
Tremble, like Aspen leaves, upon a lute. 
Titus Andronicus , ii. 4, 44. 
(2) Feel, masters, how I shake. .... Yea, in very truth do I an 
’twere an Aspen leaf.— 2 nd Henry IV, ii. 4, 114. 
The Aspen or Aspe 1 ( Populus tremula ) is one of our three 
native Poplars, and has ever been the emblem of enforced 
restlessness, on account of which it had in Anglo-Saxon times 
the expressive name of quick-beam. How this perpetual 
motion in the “ light quivering Aspen ” is produced has not 
been quite satisfactorily explained; and the mediaeval legend 
that it supplied the wood of the Cross, and has never since 
ceased to tremble, is still told as a sufficient reason both in 
Scotland and England. 
“ Oh ! a cause more deep, 
More solemn far the rustic doth assign, 
To the strange restlessness of those wan leaves ; 
The cross, he deems, the blessed cross, whereon 
The meek Redeemer bowed His head to death, 
Was formed of Aspen wood ; and since that hour 
Through all its race the pale tree hath sent down 
A thrilling consciousness, a secret awe, 
Making them tremulous, when not a breeze 
Disturbs the airy thistle-down, or shakes 
The light lines of the shining gossamer.”— Mrs. Hemans . 
The Aspen has an interesting botanical history, as being 
undoubtedly, like the Scotch fir, one of the primaeval trees 
of Europe ; while its grey bark and leaves and its pleasant 
rustling sound make the tree acceptable in our hedgerows, but 
otherwise it is not a tree of much use. In Spenser’s time it 
was considered “ good for staves ; ” and before his time the 
tree must have been more valued than it is now, for in the 
1 “ Espe ” in “ Promptorium Parvulorum. ” “Aspen” is the case¬ 
ending of “ Aspe.” 
