Note 340 — AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF PHINEAS PETT (continued 2)
Reading edition
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. ' ... his shipping Poor ignorant baubles—on our terrible seas Like egg-shells mov'd upon their surges, crack'd As easily 'gainst our rocks.' Shakespeare, Cymbeline, III, i.
The word 'bawble' is also used by Anson in speaking of the Tryal sloop, which the Spaniards at Juan Fernandez could not credit with having rounded Cape Horn.
'Devil' seemingly refers to the 'poor devils' forming the crew: it does not appear to refer to the seam in the ship's bottom to which that name is sometimes given.