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Past and present are hilariously, almost hysterically, linked in 'Rhampsenit'; in the moral (you get a security-conscious king if you appoint a thief) there is a touch of the grim irony which recurs irregularly but frequently in the poetry of Heine's later years - even when the mood is ostensibly gay there lurks a gruesome quality which finds a modern echo in some of the songs of Mr Tom Lehrer.