[340] MS. 'veryest bable and drowne divell.' This has the appearance of a seaman's saying, but I have not met it elsewhere. 'Bable' (bauble) is used contemptuously for 'a mere toy, applied to a machine, etc., considered too small or weak for actual work' (N.E.D.), as in the following passages:
' ... the sea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
Upon her patient breast ...
But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis ...
... where's then the saucy boat
Whose weak untimbered sides but even now
Co-rivall'd greatness?'
Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, I, iii.