when i'd heard that nohrnberg was going up to the spenser conference at toronto i'd said to him that if he ran into my present teacher would he please tell him i wasn't quite as daft as i appear. i wish i hadn't said that now because they did run into each other. now teskey undoubtedly thinks i'm far dafter than i am. however, he did give me a copy of his edition of paradise lost (that is to say the new norton paradise lost that he editted) "i'm particularly proud of the glossary," he says, and so he should be. it is both greatly learned and yet somehow pleasantly off-the-cuff. bit like an elegant and amiable god having a bit of a chitchat. anyone who writes an entry on "virtues, angelic, 5.371" that includes, in four lines, a nod to virgil and "smelling-strength of dogs, odora canum vis (aenied 4 132)" has to have my esteem and tribute of laughter.