Mrs. Rentoul Esler is herself a writer of distinction and power, and is thus able to express herself with the vigor and lucidity which carry conviction. Her letter is a clear call for that "Fair Play" which Marie Corelli has been demanding for so long.
That the novelist is well able to retort upon unfriendly critics is shown by a few verses addressed by her to The Quarterly in her "Christmas Greeting" (1901). A lacerating article concerning Miss Corelli and her work had appeared in The Quarterly, and it drew from her the following little epigram:—
TO THE QUARTERLY
WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF THE SEASON
Greeting, old friend! A merry Christmas time
To you, who nothing merry ever see;—
Great Murderer of poets in their prime,—
Why have you struck at me?
With vengeful hooks of sharpened critic-steel
You tortured giants in the days gone by,—
And now upon your creaking, rusty wheel,
You'd break a Butterfly!
Alas! you're far too cumbrous for such things!
Your heavy, clanking axle drags i' the chase;—
The happy Insect has the use of wings,
And keeps its Sunshine-place!
