Also 7 fabule. [a. OF. fabler:—L. fābulārī to talk, discourse, f. fābula: see FABLE. The Eng. senses are directly derived from those of the sb.]
† 1. intr. To speak, talk, converse. Obs. rare–1. [A Latinism.]
1382. Wyclif, Luke, xxiv. 15. While they talkiden (or fableden) [Vulg. fabulareutur] … Ihesu him self neiȝynge went with hem.
1570. Levins, Manip., 2. To fable, talke, confabulari.
† 2. a. To tell fictitious tales, speak fiction, romance. b. To talk idly. Obs.
a. c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 133. Whanne men speken fables þei fablen in þer speche.
1401. Political Poems (1859), II. 41.
| Daw, thou fablest of foxes, | |
| and appliest hem to a puple, | |
| of whom nether thou knowyst kunnyng, | |
| ne her conversacion. |
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. xviii. 16. David … doth not fable like a Poet.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. v. 25.
| Prince. Let Æsop fable in a Winters Night, | |
| His Currish Riddles sorts not with this place. |
a. 1721. Prior, 1st Hymn Callimachus, 69.
| That Saturn’s Sons receiv’d the threefold Empire | |
| Of Heav’n, of Ocean, and deep Hell beneath, | |
| As the dark Urn and Chance of Lot determin’d, | |
| Old Poets mention, fabling. |
1814. Southey, Roderick, VI. 115. I do not dream nor fable.
b. 1579. J. Jones, Preserv. Bodie & Soule, I. xviii. 31. Let Paracelsus with hys followers neuer so foolishly fable to the contrarie.
1653. S. Fisher, Baby Baptism, 7. It’s a most Pedantick, toyish and boyish peece of business to stand fabling about moods and figures, which are but the A. B. C. or first rudiments to a Scholar.
1870. Daily News, 15 Oct. Superstition is at last resolvable into the claim of ignorance … to fable of the ineffable.
3. To speak falsely, talk falsehoods, lie. Const. with. Obs. exc. arch.
1530. Calisto & Melib., in Hazl., Dodsley, I. 68.
| I wonder where she gets | |
| The things that she hath with folks for to fable. |
1535. Boorde, Let., in Introd. Knowl., Introd. (1870), 57. In wytness þat I do not fable with yow.
1612. Two Noble Kinsmen, III. v.
| And, to say verity, and not to fable | |
| We are a merry rout, or else a rabble. |
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 158 [Those who have made a pilgrimage to Mecca] are euer after accounted Syets or Holy men, and cannot fable from that time forward.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, X. xiii.
| Thou hast fabled with me! and art like | |
| The forms that wait upon my solitude, | |
| Human to eye alone. |
1814. Mrs. J. West, Alicia de Lacy, III. 268. Mother, I do not fable.
4. trans. To say or talk about fictitiously; to relate as in a fable, fiction, or myth; to fabricate, invent (an incident, a personage, story, etc.). With simple and complementary object, to with inf., with sentence as obj.; also absol. † To fable up: to work up by fiction into.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 42.
| What foles do fable, take thou no hede at all, | |
| For what they know not, they cal phantastical. |
1567. J. Maplet, A Greene Forest, or a Naturall Historie, 96. It is fabled with the Poets, that Ixion, Iunoes Secretary, prouoked hir to Venery.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 46.
| Oit he gaue owt rumours, hee fabled sundrye reportes, | |
| Mee to trap in matters of state, with forgerye knauish. |
1598. Stow, Surv., vii. (1603), 34. Aldersgate, so called not of Aldrich or of Elders, that is to say, ancient men, builders thereof; not of Eldarne trees, growing there more abundantly than in other places, as some haue fabuled.
1611. Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., I. xi. 21/2. The Hurlers also, fabuled to bee men metamorphosed into stones; but in truth shew a note of some victorie, or else are so set for Land-markes Bounders.
1638. Ford, Fancies, III. iii.
| Clar. Yet women, sure, in such a case are ever | |
| More secret than men are. | |
| Sil. Yea, and talk less. | |
| Rom. That is a truth much fabled, never found. |
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 292.
| Or turn this Heav’n it self into the Hell | |
| Thou fablest, here however to dwell free, | |
| If not to reign. |
1726. De Foe, Hist. Devil, I. x. (1840), 139. Men soon fabled up their histories, Satan assisting, into miracle and wonder.
1741. Watts, Improv. Mind (1801), 4. The most learned of mortals will never find occasion to act over again what is fabled of Alexander the Great, that when he had conquered what was called the Eastern world, he wept for want of more worlds to conquer. The worlds of science are immense and endless.
1750. Warburton, Julian, v. Wks. (1811), VIII. 200. Of these [cannon], the Chinese were at liberty to fable what they pleased.
1774. Pennant, Tour Scotl. in 1772. 354. This castle is fabled to have been founded by Ewin.
1794. Coleridge, Relig. Musings, viii.
| And the pale-featured Sage’s trembling hand | |
| Strong as an host of armed Deities, | |
| Such as the blind Ionian fabled erst. |
1814. Wordsw., Wh. Doe, IV. 110.
| That stood’st before my eyes more clear | |
| Than ghosts are fabled to appear | |
| Sent on embassies of fear. |
1847. Tennyson, The Princess, III. 120.
| She demanded who we were, | |
| And why we came? I fabled nothing fair, | |
| But, your example pilot, told her all. |
1869. Phillips, Vesuv., viii. 207. The inhabitants further fabled that the birds which attempted to fly over it fell down into the water, destroyed by the rising exhalations, as in other Plutonian places.
1877. L. Morris, Epic Hades, III. 242.
| And so men fabled me, a huntress now, | |
| Borne thro’ the flying woodlands, fair and free. |
