Christian_ (1900), again satisfying the
socio-ethico-religious demand, and _Temporal Power_ (1902), with its
contemporary suggestion from the accession of Edward VII. Miss Corelli
had the advantage of writing quite sincerely and with conviction, amid
what superior critics sneered at as bad style and sensationalism, on
themes which conventional readers nevertheless enjoyed, and round plots
which were dramatic and vigorous. Her popular success was great and
advertised itself. It was helped by a well-spread belief that Queen
Victoria preferred her novels to any other. Reviewers wrote
sarcastically, and justly, of her obvious literary lapses and failings;
she retorted by pitying the poor reviewers and letting it be understood
that no books of hers were sent to the Press for criticism. When she
went to live at Stratford-on-Avon, her personality, and her importance
in the literary world, became further allied with the historic
associations of the place; and in the public life of women writers her
utterances had the _reclame_ which is emphasized by journalistic
publicity. Such success is not to be gauged by purely literary
standards; the popularity of Miss Corelli's novels is a phenomenon not
so much of literature as of literary energy--entirely creditable to the
journalistic resource of the writer, and characteristic of contemporary
pleasure in readable fiction.

CORENZIO, BELISARIO (c. 1558-1643), Italian painter, a Greek by birth,
studied at Venice under Tintoretto, and then settled at Naples, where he
became famous for unscrupulous conduct as a man and rapid execution as
an artist. Though careless in composition and a mannerist in style, he
possessed an acknowledged fertility of invention and readiness of hand;
and these qualities, allied to a certain breadth of conception, seem in
the eyes of his contemporaries to have atoned for many defects. When
Guido Reni came in 1621 to Naples to paint in the chapel of St
Januarius, Corenzio suborned an assassin to take his life. The hired
bravo killed Guido's assistant, and effectually frightened Reni, who
prudently withdrew to Rome. Corenzio, however, only suffered temporary
imprisonment, and lived long enough to supplant Ribera in the good
graces of Don Pedro di Toledo, viceroy of Naples, who made him his court
painter. Corenzio vainly endeavoured to fill Guido's place in the chapel
of St Januarius. His work was adjudged to have been under the mark, and
yet the numerous fres