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, And Faustus meet his end; Repent, repent, or presently To hell you must descend, Nash tells his story of the country lad who walked to London, bringing his possessions carried on a stick over his shoulder, bringing also, All unshielded, all unarmed, A child's heart, packed with splendid hopes and dreams. His manner, Untamed, adventurous, but still innocent, exposed him to the clutches of the underworld. One woman, in particular, Used all her London tricks To coney-catch the country greenhorn. Won by her pathetic account of her virtues and trials Marlowe tried to help her to escape from London-then, because he was utterly unused to the wiles of women, and was Simple as all great, elemental things, when she expressed an infatuation for him, then In her treacherous eyes, As in dark pools the mirrored stars will gleam, Here did he see his own eternal skies. * * * * * And all that God had meant to wake one day Under the Sun of Love, suddenly woke By candle-light, and cried, "The Sun, the Sun." At last, holding him wrapped in her hair, the woman attempted to tantalize him by revealing her promiscuous amours. In a horror of agony and loathing, Marlowe broke away from her. The next day, as Nash was loitering in a group including this woman and her lover, Archer, someone ran in to warn Archer that a man was on his way to kill him. As Marlowe strode into the place, Nash was struck afresh by his beauty: I saw his face, Pale, innocent, just the clear face of that boy Who walked to Cambridge, with a bundle and stick, The little cobbler's son. Yet--there I caught My only glimpse of how the sun-god looked-- Mourning for his death, the great dramatists agree that