From 1948 to 1976 Fr. Edward Gregory Lee of the Congregation of St. Basil taught Shakespeare, Greek drama, Dante, Chaucer, Romantic poetry and Universal Themes in Literature (Odyssey, Huck Finn, Ulysses) at the University of St. Thomas in Houston TX. He would teach Greek drama in the fall, Shakespeare in the spring, and one of the other classes (open only to upper-classmen and women) in each season. Almost everyone who ever took a class from him said he was the best teacher they had ever had. I took four more semesters of college and three of graduate school after transferring from St. Thomas; and not only did I never have a teacher equal to Ed Lee, I never met a finer man or woman in my life. And in this belief I am not alone; the collective noun for us all is the "tribe of Levites."
His birthday is July 7, 1901 and I am late this year in doing him honor. Actually, no, I do him honor every time I read; what I mean is doing him public honor.
In 1967-8 I worked for him after class, helping him by typing This Week for Students every Friday, his compendious guide to good TV, film, opera, concerts, lectures, saints days, and other worthwhile happenings in Houston in general and on campus in particular. In the matter of cultural enrichment, TWFS did not discriminate between town and gown.
That year he had a small kitten who was killed one spring afternoon when lightning struck Shadwell Hall and exploded the TV that Che Moody Knight had given him for his office. He had me type the following poem in TWFS; I was immediately struck by its being tonally a cross between P.G. Wodehouse and Basho. I asked him, "Who was Pangur Ban?" and he said, "That was my kitten." I took this as a direct confession of authorship.
Spring sprang
And sank his fang
In my favorite icicle.
One weeps
For keeps
At so a blow.
'Tis a like task we are at:
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.
Better far than praise of men
'Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill-will,
He too plies his simple skill.
'Tis a merry task to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.
Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur's way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.
'Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
'Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.
When a mouse darts from its den,
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!
So in peace our task we ply,
Pangur Ban, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.
Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night
Turning darkness into light.
"One warm summer day, Father Edward Lee was sent over to Detroit from Assumption College to say the last two Masses in a parish where the pastor insisted that the celebrant preach at his own Masses. No Sunday was too hot to excuse from a sermon in this parish. After a lengthy list of announcements, Father Lee read the Epistle and then the Gospel, the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. He then began this sermon:
"'My dear brethern. The story of today's Gospel is so perfectly clear that any comment of mine upon it would be superfluous; but for the sake of the psychology of repetition, I shall read it to you once more.'
"That was his entire sermon."
D'ye ken Ed Lee wi' his coat sae black,
D'ye ken Ed Lee a' the classroom back,
D'ye ken Ed Lee wi' his teaching knack,
His buiks and his chalk i' the morning?
For the sound o' his voice brought me frae my bed
And the cry o' his verse which he oft times read,
Lee's class discourse would awake the dead
Or the Greek o' the Week i' the morning.
Just to make this a completely multimedia extravaganza, here is a link to a wonderful Harper Tasche performance of John Peel for those of you set up to play MP3s automagically.
"O most horrible! The dinner cannot be tomorrow at 6. It has been postponed until Monday at the same hour. I hope this announcement does not unsettle your wits, appetite or good nature.
"Lou"
"Lou,
"An elimination of all the innumerable complications arising from your horrendous revelation has suddenly been effected. Frantic dithers supervened during the initial second, but a dominant theme of resolute adjustment broke thru to self-assertion in time to prevent apoplexy.
"Edward "
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Delia Yeager
Wendy Elf
Patrick Tracey
Patrick Tracey
Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
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Comments
Thank you,
Mark W. Lee, Ph.D.
Director
Casablanca American School
Casablanca Morocco