I see that among the Index entries under "Kinbote,
Charles, his quiet warning to G, 171" .
Line 171 (and part of 170 all of 172)
at the start of Canto Two read:
170 ............................................I
alone
171 Knew nothing, and a great
conspiracy
172 Of books and people hid the truth from
me.
This is Shade voicing his adolescent suspicion that
everyone but him knows the secret of survival after death. (The phrase
"great conspiracy" is picked up again on pp.153 where, weirdly, we read "a
great conspiracy against Gradus" apparently referring to the possibly rigged
selection of him as the royal assassin and/or fate ultimately denying him the
deed of killing the King.)
Whatever -- the
Index entry seems to me to be in error. Apart from the obvious fact that
it is Shade (not K) who pens the poem's "great conspiracy" and K is merely
seizing on the phrase as a convenient place to hang his long note,
isn't Kinbote's pseudo-warning not to Gradus
(G), but to Shade (S)? That is, K's "quiet warning" be to Shade. Having K
warning G makes no sense.
I have checked the Library of America "definitive"
text and also Vera's Russian text. Both contain what seems to me an error, i.e.,
G, not S.
Any thoughts on this??
Don Johnson