"Next Marlow, bathed in the Thespian springs,
Had in him those brave translunary things
That your first poets had: his raptures were
All air and fire, which made his verses clear:
For that fine madness still he did retain
Which rightly should possess a poet's brain."
Decker, in one of his tracts[1], has placed Marlow in the Elisian Grove of Baies, "with Greene and Peele, under the shadow of a large vine." In that curious old comedy, "The Returne from Pernassus," is the following passage:
"Marlow was happy in his buskin'd Muse,
Alas! unhappy in his life and end:
Pity it is that wit so ill should dwell,
Wit lent from Heaven, but vices sent from Hell."
It should seem that Marlow on his first launching into life pursued the same thoughtless career of dissipation, which it is to be feared was too prevalent with the men of wit and genius at that period; his associates were Nashe, and Greene, and Peele, dangerous companions—from the fascination of their society and the freedom of
- ↑ A Knight's Conjuring, 1607, 4to. sig. L.
