Chapter B to Babel of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

(3) Men in the stocks or in the pillory.

Babes (Deities of), in Rome. VATICAN, or, more correctly, VAGITAN-US (q.v.), the god who caused infants to utter their first cry. FABULIN-US (q.v.), the god to whom Roman parents made an offering when an infant uttered its first word. CUBA (q.v.), the goddess who kept infants quiet in their cots. DOMIDUCA, the goddess who brought young children safe home, and kept guard over them when out of their parents' sight.

Babies in the Eyes That is, love in the expression of the eyes. Love is the little babe Cupid, and hence the conceit, originating from the reflection of the onlooker in the pupil of another's eyes.

"In each of her two crystal eyes
Smileth a naked boy [Cupid]." Lord Surrey.

She clung about his neck, gave him ten kisses,
Toyed with his locks, looked babies in his eyes."

Heywood: Love's Mistress.

Babel A perfect Babel. A thorough confusion. "A Babel of sounds." A confused uproar, in which nothing can be heard but hubbub. The allusion is to the confusion of tongues at Babel. (Genesis xi.)

"God ... comes down to see their city,
... ... and in derision sets
Upon their tongues a various spirit, to raze
Quite out their native language, and instead
To sow a jangling noise of words unknown.
Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud
Among the builders; each to other calls
Not understood. ... Thus was the building left
Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named."

Milton: Paradise Lost, xii, 48--63.