. Henderson, have a theory of their own, embodied in
a little poem, which may be thus translated:

"Once, as our Saviour walked with men below,
His path of mercy through a forest lay;
And mark how all the drooping branches show,
What homage best a silent tree may pay.

"Only the aspen stands erect and free,
Scorning to join that voiceless worship pure;
But see! He casts one look upon the tree,
Struck to the heart she trembles evermore!"

Another legend tells us[475] that the aspen was said to have been the
tree on which Judas hanged himself after the betrayal of his Master, and
ever since its leaves have trembled with shame. Shakespeare twice
alludes to the trembling of the aspen. In "Titus Andronicus" (ii. 4)
Marcus exclaims:

"O, had the monster seen those lily hands
Tremble, like aspen leaves, upon a lute;"

and in "2 Henry IV." (ii. 4) the hostess says: "Feel, masters, how I
shake. Yea, in very truth, do I, an 'twere an aspen leaf."

[475] Napier's "Folk-Lore of West of Scotland," 1879, p. 124.

_Bachelor's Buttons._ This was a name given to several flowers, and
perhaps in Shakespeare's time was more loosely applied to any flower in
bud. It is now usually understood to be a _double variety_ of
ranunculus; according to others, the _Lychnis sylvestris_; and in some
counties it is applied to the _Scabiosa succisa_.[476] According to
Gerarde, this plant was so called from the similitude of its flowers "to
the jagged cloathe buttons, anciently worne in this kingdome." It was
formerly supposed, by country people, to have some magical effect upon
the fortunes of lovers. Hence it was customary for young people to carry
its flowers in their pockets, judging of their good or bad success in
proportion as these retained or lost their freshness. It is to this sort
of divination that Shakespeare probably refers in "Merry Wives of
Windsor" (iii. 2), where he makes the hostess say, "What say you to
young Master Fenton? he capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he
writes verses, he speaks holiday, he smells April and May; he will carry
't, he will carry 't; 'tis in his buttons; he will carry 't." Mr.
Warter, in one of his notes in Southey's "Commonplace Book" (1851, 4th
series, p. 244), says that this practice was common in his time, in
Shropshire and Staffordshire. The term "to wear bachelor's buttons"
seems to have grown into a phrase for being unmarried.[477]

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