20 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
reign of Henry V. an Act of Parliament was passed (4 Henry 
V. c. 3) to prevent the consumption of Aspe, otherwise than 
for the making of arrows, with a penalty of an Hundred 
Shillings if used for making pattens or clogs. This Act 
remained in force till the reign of James I., when it was 
repealed. In our own time the wood is valued for internal 
panelling of rooms, and is used in the manufacture of 
gunpowder. 
By the older writers the Aspen was the favourite simile for 
female loquacity. The rude libel is given at full length in 
‘‘The Schoole-house of Women” (511— 545), concluding 
thus— 
“ The Aspin lefe hanging where it be, 
With little winde or none it shaketh ; 
A woman’s tung in like wise taketh 
Little ease and little rest; 
For if it should the hart would brest.” 
Hazlitfs Popular English Poetry, vol. iv., p. 126. 
And to the same effect Gerard concludes his account of the 
tree thus : “ In English Aspe and Aspen tree, and may also 
be called Tremble, after the French name, considering it is 
the matter whereof women’s tongues were made (as the poets 
and some others report), which seldom cease wagging.” 
