* * * * *
With heavenly inspiration, too divine
For souls besotted with earth's sensual wine.
[Footnote: _Shelley_.]

Consequently he is misunderstood and persecuted, and returns to heaven
heart-broken by the apparent failure of his mission.

Aside from Shelley, Marlowe is the historical poet most frequently
chosen to illustrate the world's proneness to take advantage of the
poet's innocence. In the most famous of the poems about Marlowe, _The
Death of Marlowe_, R. H. Horne takes a hopeful view of the world's
depravity, for he makes Marlowe's innocence of evil so touching that it
moves a prostitute to reform. Other poets, however, have painted
Marlowe's associates as villains of far deeper dye. In the drama by
Josephine Preston Peabody, the persecutions of hypocritical puritans
hound Marlowe to his death. [Footnote: _Marlowe._]

The most representative view of Marlowe as an innocent, deceived youth
is that presented by Alfred Noyes, in _At the Sign of the Golden
Shoe_. In this poem we find Nash describing to the Mermaid group
thetragic end of Marlowe, who lies

Dead like a dog in a drunken brawl,
Dead for a phial of paint, a taffeta gown.

While there float in from the street, at intervals, the cries of the
ballad-mongers hawking their latest doggerel,

Blaspheming Tamborlin must die,