*jry15-1
마음의 불씨와 관련하여 Charles Lamb의 삶과 그의 누이을 떠몰리다.
Glorier Classics 페이지 368:
Essays of Elia.
Tears of pity have spilled over the memory of poor C Lamb,
although he would have been the last to be grateful for them.
It may be true, that the burden of Mary not only restricted his personal
life,but the burden of Mary chained him to a desk in the East India Company
for thirty -three years.
Lamb could ask:"why the devil am I never to have a chance of scribbling my own free thoughts,
verse or prose again? Why must I write of trea and drugs , and price goods and the bales of indigo?"
But he also comment humorously , as he did in his "Autobiography",
that his true works filled hundreds of folios to be "found on the shelves of Leadenhall Street,"
that is , in the East India House.
It is useless to spend time wondering what Lamb might have been or what might have become
,had there been no Mary to tend and no ledgers to fill.
Actually when one reads the novel, the play, the poems he wrote early in his life,
one feels that he had no great talent for fiction. Of Course, the early works of many artists
fails to show signs of their later genius. But Lambs talent for poetry was exceedingly
slight , for novel-writing it was nonexistent and,if we are candid, as a playwright he was a bore.
If Lamb had not spent 33 years as a 'white -collar worker', he might have time to find his true
metium, the essay, at an earlier date. He had always longed for freedom; he had thought
he would be delighted when he was finally released from the bondadge of commerce by a generous pension.
Yet in his essay "The Superannated Man", he echoes the troubled feelings of many who have taken
adventage of retirement. Lamb seemed to need his office , where they called him Charley and where
, when a superior remarked ," I notice, Mr Lamb, that you come very late every morning" ,Mr Lamb
could answer, "Yes ,but see how early I go.