Comment on the line,"Those eternal bells depress me" from "The Superannuated Man".

  This quoted line,  taken from a notable Elian essay, "The Superannuated Man", a remarkable personal essay, which is extracted from the collection of essays, " The Last Essays of Elia"(1833) by the most bright Romantic essayist, Charles Lamb,"Prince of English essayists", expresses Lamb's feelings & experience on the day of Sunday.

   "The Superannuated Man" is a pen picture of Lamb's life before & after superannuation. Lamb had to drudge "eight, nine and sometimes ten hours a day" for long "six and thirty years" fron fourteen --- the "abundant playtime" and "the frequently intervening vacations of school days" to fifty in "the irksome confinement" of the South Sea House and the Indian Offi..  In this drudgery, he had a special fondness for holidays. In this hard life of drudgery, Sunday is the only holiday-- "I had my Sundays to myself". In thus connection, Lamb here tells about his attitude towatd the state of London.

   After his hard drudgery of six days Lamb had had his own Sunday.  But Sunday proved a total failure and could not give him the entertainment which he sought for. Actually Lamb is  the lover of noise, crowd and recreation. " But Sundays,  admirable as the institution of thrmis for purposes of worship...." The people of London went to the Church to fulfil their desire. On that particular day, "there is a gloom" for our author. He could only hear the continuous ringing of church bells, that seemed to call the devout Christian to  the prayer for eternsl rest.

    Lamb missed "the cheerful cries of London, the music and the ballad singers - the buzz and stirring murmur of the streets." "The closed shops" repealed  him.  He also could not find "prints, picture,  all the glittering and endless succession of knacks and gewgaws, and ostentatiously displayed wares of tradesmen."  The whole situation is only repulsive to him. He did not like such a dreary, gloomy environment of Sunday.

    In this quoted line, the personal element is clearly evident. The author here mentions his love of the city and the bustke of city life, of its crowds and noises. There is also a fine touch of humour in the expression - "the eternal bells depress me" and this phrase serves to indicate the state of Lamb's mind who was the victim of the dull Sunday.