REMEMBERING THE MANE

In his review of Jay McInerney’s “Brightness Falls” (June 7), Richard Eder laments that one of the characters in the novel manages to interpret a line from Thomas Nashe’s great Renaissance poem, “A Litany in the Times of Plague,” into Rod McKuen-esque kitsch.

Mr. Eder and Mr. McInerney both might be interested to know that the line that concerns them so greatly--”Brightness falls from the air”--is more likely the result of an Elizabethan printing error than the composition of one of the great poets of the 16th Century.

The late poet and critic (and literary scholar) J. V. Cunningham was able to prove quite conclusively more than 15 years ago that Nashe meant the line to read: “Brightness falls from the hair. “ The poem deals with death and dying and one effect of sickness is the loss of luster and shine to the hair.

The false line is perhaps more evocative, more open to personal interpretation, more symbolic; and so it has survived a critical reassessment. This, however, is a disservice both to poetry and to the memory of a poet whose work we have diminished with our unauthorized editing.

ANDREW C. DUNGAN

CANOGA PARK