RUSTED!"]

* * * * *

CORIOLANUS.

"I would he had continu'd to his country
As he began, and not unknit, himself,
The noble knot he made."

_Coriolanus_, Act IV., Scene 2.

"His Majesty discriminates between the Prince BISMARCK of former
times, and of to-day, and is anxious that his Government should avoid
everything which might tend to diminish, in the eyes of the German
nation, the familiar figure of its greatest Statesman."--_Instructions
to Imperial German Representatives abroad:_--

Can this be he who "At the Gates"[1]
Of Janus' Temple stood of old,
Protective, vigilant, and bold,
As one who calmly dares--and waits?

"_So fancy limns him, who'll not cease
To watch o'er what his brain upbuilt_,"
_Punch_ sang. And now he lifts the hilt,
Warlike, against a Patriot Peace.

Calm warder then, challenger now.
The tower he reared would he attack,
Because--they have not called him back
Like CINCINNATUS from the plough?

"The wounds that he doth bear for Rome,"
Should speak wide-lipped against the change.
The new _Coriolanus_! Strange,
So great a past to _this_ should come!

The imperious Roman, banished, bared
Against Rome's walls a traitor blade.
But _you_--revenge is scarce your trade,
Hero, in faction's mazes snared.

The shirt of Nessus poisoned not,
Nor angered Hercules as you
Seem angered, poisoned. Yet you knew
On ARNIM's shield to bare the blot.

What should it say, Count HARRY's ghost,
Could it beside your couch appear,
And whisper in his foeman's ear?
Share you not that which shamed him most?

_You_ flaunt the Press against the Throne?
_You_ bare State secrets to the crowd?
You who against the Mob were loud,
With mockery MARCIUS well might own?

It doth not fit a splendid past.
The Sentinel in arms arrayed
Against the Citadel, a shade
Of gloom o'er glory's sheen will cast.

The illustrious name of BISMARCK blot
With no such treason as could dim
The Roman's glory, nor, like him.
Yourself unknit _your_ "noble knot"!

[Footnote 1: _See_ Cartoon "At the Gates," p. 151, vol. 85, year
1883.]

* * * * *

THAT DUTCHMAN OOMS.

AIR--"_THE ADMIRAL'S BROOM_."

[J.J.K. OOMS, an amateur sculler from Amsterdam, won easily
the "Diamond Sculls" at Henley this year, beating V. NICKALS,
and othe