Lamb: The Superannuated Man

2.     Lamb spent his summer leave in his native field of Hertfordshire.

3.     Lamb did not like Sundays because, on Sundays, being the days of worship, the usual happy mood of men was absent. He missed the cheerful cries of London and the ballad singer, the buzz and stirring murmurs of the street.

4.     Lamb’s feeling of tiredness, his sense of incapacity for business, led him to superannuation.

5. He was granted retirement with a substantial pension.

6.     Two-thirds of his accustomed salary was granted to Lamb as a provision for his life.

7.     Now, his one day’s time is equivalent to three days during his service.

8.     One or two days after retirement, Lamb’s condition was like that of a prisoner in the old Bastille, suddenly let loose after forty years of confinement.

9.      ‘Time takes no measure in Eternity’

10.   Just as a wealthy man needs a manager to look after his vast property or estate, Lamb wants a sort of manager to manage his unlimited time

11.     “Wood had entered into my soul”- At the end of thirty-six years of his service life at his desk, Lamb feels he has become a part and parcel of the desk. His soul seems to have lost all sensitivity and has become as dry as the wood of the desk.

12.    “Lucretian pleasure”- It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore and to see ships tossed upon the water or to see a battle. Lambs feels this sensation after his retirement, seeing his colleagues still working.

13.    Lucretius was a Roman poet and the author of the philosophical epic De Rerum Natura, a comprehensive exposition of the Epicurean worldview.

14.   “Prison of Bastille”- It is a state prison in Paris, destroyed by the people during the French Revolution in 1789.

15.    “Bond Street”: It refers to the fashionable quarter of London. After his retirement, Lamb has enough time to go anywhere he pleases. Sometimes he finds himself at 11 O’clock in the day in Bond Street.

16.   “Elgin Marbles”- It refers to the fragments of Greek sculpture, chiefly from the Parthenon, at Athens, and brought to England by Lord Elgin in 1802 and preserved in the British Museum in 1816.

17.    ‘Soho’– Soho is the name of a locality in London. After his retirement, as Lamb had enough time, he sometimes visited Soho to explore book stalls and collect books there.

18.   “Black Money”: Here, ‘black’ means dismal because it means returning to work. Mondays were black because they reminded Lamb of the five years of drudgery to follow in a week during his service life.

19.   “Ethiopian white”- Ethiopians are generally black. Mondays were black to Lamb during his service life, but they turned white by the magic of retirement. It is something like a chemical reaction.

20.  “Retired leisure”- As a retired man, Lamb personifies leisure. His carefree manners and dignified attitude have lent an aristocratic grace to his personality. The term is borrowed from ‘Paradise Lost’ by Milton.

21.    Lamb, here jokingly says, if he had a little son, he would have given his name, ‘Nothing-to-do’, because he should do nothing. Lamb’s philosophy of indolence is apparent here.

22.   Aquinas: Thomas Aquinas was a renowned theologian of the thirteenth century. The works of Lamb were as bulky as the theological writings of Aquinas in manuscripts. Lamb’s larger books were useful to the company as the writings of Aquinas to the scholars and holy men. The underlying humour is to be noted.

23.   “Pall mall”- It refers to the centre of commerce where businessmen got together in London to discuss commercial matters.

24.  Lamb has worked for 36 years in Mincing Lane

25.   “Time practically reconciles us to anything.”

26.  The author left the office forever at 8:10.

27.   Opus operatum: Literally “the work wrought”, a Latin phrase used to denote the spiritual effect in the performance of a religious rite which accrues from the virtue inherent in it, or by grace imparted to it, irrespective of the administrator.”

28.  Esto perpetua (Latin “Let it be perpetual”) is the state motto of Idaho. The motto appears on the back of the 2007 Idaho quarter. The words are traced back to the Venetian theologian and mathematician Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623), also known as Fra Paolo.

A.     The practice of transporting animals from various parts of the Empire to England

2.     What did Lamb miss in the Sundays before his superannuation?

A.     He missed the liveliness of the city in all its activities

3.     “Before I had a taste of it, it had vanished”. What is Lamb talking about here?

A.     a full week in the summer to go and air myself in my native fields of Hertfordshire.

4.     What does the word thraldom mean?

A.      A state of subjugation

5.     When was Lamb summoned for the announcement of his retirement?

A.     on the evening of the 12th of April

6.     What is the Romantic element in the essay that sustains our interest?

A.     The conflict between the imaginary and the practical

7.     What is the loss Lamb found most haunting after his retirement?

A.     The loss of the sense of time

8.     Who does Lamb address as “my cobrethren of the quill”

A.     His colleagues at the firm

9.     How did Lamb find the office and its staff when he went there after retirement?

A.     As a retired person, he could not find the same warmth with them

10.   How does Lamb present his colleagues

A.     With real-life warmth

11.     How do you find the style of the essayist?

A.     A kind of official style used to convey the tragedy of works associated with such monotonous work