"The Rabbit" is a poem by Lord Alfred Douglas, publishedfirst published in the June 10, 1896 issue of a weekly called The Sketch (No. 176, vol. XIV, p. 264). The poem was reprinted in an 1898 collection called Tails with a twistTwist. This is the version in the the 1928 edition of the complete poems of Lord Alfred Douglas:
THE RABBIT
The Rabbit has an evil mind,
Although he looks so good and kind.His life is a complete disgrace,
Although he has so soft a face.I hardly like to let you know
How far his wickedness will go.Enough, if this poor rhyme declares
His fearful cruelty to hares.He does his very best to keep
These gentle animals from sleep,By joining in with noisy throngs
Of rabbits singing ribald songs.To wake their fears and make them bound,
He simulates the Basset-hound.And if he meets them after dark,
He imitates the greyhound's bark.Douglas, Alfred Bruce. "The Rabbit." 1896. The Complete Poems of Lord Alfred Douglas, including the Light Verse. London: Martin Seckere, 1928. p. 154. Accessed at hathitrust.org 28 January 2024
Though this has many similarities with the lines Hastings quotes, it is not an exact match. A variant closer version of Douglas's lines appears in 1909 in the Wisconsin Medical Journal, of all places. A report on a dairy show includes this snippetmentions the poem in passing:
This opens up the possibility that Wallace Irwin published an adaptation ofwrote a better known variant of Douglas's poem that was more widely read than the original. However, such athe poem is not easily found in Irwin's works available online.
In the 1920s, Anne Carroll Moore edited The Three Owls, a series of three volumes on children's literature. The second volume contains an essay by Marjorie Williams Bianco in which she mentions "that well-known rhyme beginning:"
The rabbit has a pleasant face;
His private life is a disgrace.Williams Bianco, Marjorie. "Easter Rabbits—and Others." The Three Owls: Second Book. Contemporary Criticism of Children's Books. Written and Edited by Anne Carroll Moore. New York: Coward-McCann, 1928. pp. 249–254. Accessed at archive.org 28 January 2024. Passage quoted is on p. 252.
This is closer to Hastings' quote than what Douglas wrote. Since it postdates the publication of Christie's story, it is possible that Williams Bianco is quoting Christie. However, she calls it a "well-known rhyme," making it more likely that some version of Douglas's poem was in popular circulation in the 1920s, when both Christie's story and Williams Bianco's essay appeared.
The second edition of the popular anthology The Week-end Book does furnish suchincludes a version, attributed to that prolific scribbler, "Anon., 20th Cent.":
This anonymousLike the snippet in the Wisconsin Medical Journal, this version varies considerably from Douglas's poem, but is close to what Captain Hastings says. SinceAs it too postdates "The Market Basing Mystery," The Week-end Book cannot be Christie's source, but thisa version of this sort is perhapsevidently the one she has in mind. It seems that various rhymes about
Later in the depravitydecade, Anne Carroll Moore edited The Three Owls, a series of three volumes on children's literature. The second volume contains an essay by Marjorie Williams Bianco in which she mentions "that well-known rhyme beginning:"
The rabbit has a pleasant face;
His private life is a disgrace.Williams Bianco, Marjorie. "Easter Rabbits—and Others." The Three Owls: Second Book. Contemporary Criticism of Children's Books. Written and Edited by Anne Carroll Moore. New York: Coward-McCann, 1928. pp. 249–254. Accessed at archive.org 28 January 2024. Passage quoted is on p. 252.
Since this too postdates the publication of the fluffy creaturesshort story, it is possible that Williams Bianco is quoting Christie. However, she calls it a "well-known rhyme." It therefore appears more likely that this poem about leporine depredations circulated in the oral tradition in several different forms the 1920s and earlier, with both Douglas and perhaps, Irwin, the editors of The Week-end Book, Williams Bianco, and Christie all contributing specificdifferent versions or passing along existing ones.
