Explain the line "I was in the condition of a prisoner in the old Bastille" from "The Superannuated Man".

    The quoted statement from a notable essay, "The Superannuated Man", a most celebrated personal essay by the most bright Romantic essayist Charles Lamb, 'Prince of English essayists' vivifies Lamb's feelings of confusion and bewilderment after his sudden release from India Office.

    " The Superannuated Man" is a pen picture of Lamb's life before & after retirement. Lamb had to drudge "eight, nine and sometimes ten hours a day" for long "six and thirty years" from fourteen-- 'the abundant playtime' and 'the frequently intervening vacations of school days' upto the age of fifty - the time of 'decrepitude and silver hairs' in the 'irksome confinement' of the South Sea House and India Office.

    After his sudden retirement with 'a pension for life to the amount of two-thirds' of his 'accustomed salary', he felt 'stunned - overwhelmed' for 'the first day or two.' But his life of drudgery was a long one and it was natural to him and he was well adjusted to it. But suddenly he was thrown to retirement. He eas not ready for that. Naturally, he wad at a loss.

    To describe his condition, he compares  himself to the prisoner, imprisoned for long forty years at the fort of Bastille, which had been the political prison in France before French Revolution. But after 'a forty years of confinement' they were suddenly released & they would be definitely puzzled. Same of the condition of the superannuated clerk who 'had grown' to his 'desk, as it were and the wood had entered his soul.' Lamb was happy and equally shocked -- " I wandered about, thinking I was happy, and knowing that I was not."

    This statement is an authentic instance of Elian humour.  The analogy of old Bastille is well conceived here and psychologically impressive. Lamb's practical realism and knowledge in human psychology are remarkably revealed here.