Then, ere the bark above their shoulders grew,
They give and take at once their last adieu.
At once, farewell, O faithful spouse! they said,
At once th’ incroaching rinds their closing lips invade.
Ev’n yet an ancient Tyanæan shows
A spreading Oak that near a Linden grows.”
Rapin, in his version of the tale, makes both of the old folks become Limes, male and female:—
“While these you plant, Philemon call to mind,
In love and duty with his Baucis joined—
A good old pair whom poverty had tried,