Laudator Temporis Acti

Goethe, Faust, Part II, lines 11261-11268 (tr. David Luke):

These cursed tinkling sounds we hear
Must stink in every noble ear.
Ding-donging, tintinnabulating,
Clear evening skies obnubilating:
Every event of life it blights,
From that first bath to our last rites—
As if life were some dream-like thing
That fades away from dong to ding.

Wer läugnet's! Jedem edlen Ohr
Kommt das Geklingel widrig vor.
Und das verfluchte Bim-Baum-Bimmel
Umnebelnd heitern Abendhimmel,
Mischt sich in jegliches Begebniß,
Vom ersten Bad bis zum Begräbniß,
Als wäre, zwischen Bim und Baum,
Das Leben ein verschollner Traum.

R-M. S. Heffner et al., Goethe's Faust, Part II (Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1955), p. 375:

Mephistopheles hates the bell, because it represents the church, which concerns itself with every aspect and every event of men's lives.

Alan Corkhill, "'Why all this noise?' Reading Sound in Goethe's Faust I and II," in Lorna Fitzsimmons, ed., International Faust Studies: Adaptation, Reception, Translation (London: Continuum, 2008), pp. 55-69 (at p. 68, n. 28):

Arens (1989:120) mentions another Goethean phobia that finds expression in Faust: a dislike of clanging church bells.

The reference is to Hans Arens, Kommentar zu Goethes Faust II (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1989), which is unavailable to me.

Could "ersten Bad" refer to baptism? Church bells to most would be a holy thing, but to the devil their sound is accursed ("verfluchte").

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Thanks to Kevin Muse for pointing out support for my guess about the meaning of "first bath", in the editor's note in Goethe's Werke, vol. 13 = Faust: zweiter Theil, ed. Gustav von Loeper (Berlin: Gustav Hempel, [1879?]), p. 214:

Das „erste Bad“ ist offenbar die Taufe, wie Fichte einmal sagt (der wahrhafte Krieg, S. 36): „Religion als Zaubermittel, Wasserbad, Speise, Salböl.“