Also 7–8 caball, cabbal. [a. F. cabale (16th c. in Littré), used in all the English senses, ad. med.L. cab(b)ala (It., Sp., Pg. cabala), CABBALA, q.v. In 17th c. at first pronounced ca·bal (whence the abridged CAB sb.5); the current pronunciation was evidently reintroduced from Fr., perh. with sense 5 or 6.]
† 1. = CABBALA 1: The Jewish tradition as to the interpretation of the Old Testament. Obs.
1616. Bullokar, Cabal, the tradition of the Jewes doctrine of religion.
1660. Howell, Lex. Tetragl., Words do involve the deepest Mysteries, By them the Jew into his Caball pries.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. i. 20/530. For mystick Learning, wondrous able In Magick, Talisman, and Cabal.
† 2. = CABBALA 2: a. Any tradition or special private interpretation. b. A secret. Obs.
1626. B. Jonson, Staple of Newes, III. ii. 41 (O.). The measuring o’the Temple; a Cabal Found out but lately.
1635. Person, Varieties, I. Introd. 3. An insight in the Cabals and secrets of Nature.
1660–3. J. Spencer, Prodigies (1665), 344. If the truth contended for had been stil reserved as a Cabbal amongst men [etc.].
1663. J. Heath, Flagellum or O. Cromwell, 192. How the whole mystery and cabal of this Businesse was managed by the above mentioned Committee.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Ess., 220. To suppose that he [God] will regulate his government according to the cabals of human wisdom.
3. A secret or private intrigue of a sinister character formed by a small body of persons; ‘something less than conspiracy’ (J.).
1646–7. Clarendon, Hist. Reb. (1702), I. V. 439. The King … asked him, whether he were engaged in any Cabal concerning the army?
1663. J. Heath, Flagellum or O. Cromwell, 203. He was no sooner rid of the danger of this, but he was puzzled with Lamberts Cabal.
1707. Freind, Peterborow’s Cond. Sp., 171. In his absence indeed false suggestions, and the the contrivances and cabals of others have too often prevail’d.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. 30. There were cabals breaking out in the company.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., VI. xlvi. 299. The cabal against Washington found supporters exclusively in the north.
b. as a species of action; = CABALLING.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), III. 22. To advance themselves … by cabal, treachery and violence.
1791. Burke, Th. on Fr. Affairs, VII. 24. Centres of cabal.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., III. 261. Restless activity and the arts of cabal.
4. A secret or private meeting, esp. of intriguers or of a faction. arch. or Obs.
1649. Bp. Guthrie, Mem. (1702), 23. The Supplicants … met again at their several Caballs.
1656–7. Cromwell, in Burton, Diary (1828), I. 382. He had never been at any cabal about the same.
1715. Bentley, Serm., x. 356. A mercenary conclave and nocturnal Cabal of Cardinals.
1738. Warburton, Div. Legat., I. 169. Celebrate the Mysteries in a private Cabal.
1822. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall, iii. 23. To tell the anecdote … at those little cabals, that will occasionally take place among the most orderly servants.
b. phrase. In cabal. arch. or Obs.
a. 1678. Marvell, Poems, Wks. I. Pref. 8. Is he in caball in his cabinett sett.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 28. The gunner and second mate were in a close cabal together.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., I. (1810), 55. Here, in cabal, a disputatious crew Each evening meet.
5. A small body of persons engaged in secret or private machination or intrigue; a junto, clique, côterie, party, faction.
1660. Trial Regic., 175. You were … of the Cabal.
1670. Marvell, Corr., cxlvii. Wks. 1872–5, II. 326. The governing cabal … are Buckingham, Lauderdale, Ashly, Orery, and Trevor. Not but the other cabal [Arlington, Clifford, and their party] too have seemingly sometimes their turn.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., V. § 21. A gentleman who has been idle at college, and kept idle company, will judge a whole university by his own cabal.
1767. G. Canning, Poet. Wks. (1827), 56. Should Fat Jack and his Cabal Cry ‘Rob us the Exchequer, Hal!’
1859. Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 183. In Naples, where a ‘cabal’ of artists was formed, who conspired to have recourse even to poison and the dagger, should any unfortunate Academic painter attempt to establish himself in Naples.
6. Applied in the reign of Charles II. to the small committee or junto of the Privy Council, otherwise called the ‘Committee for Foreign Affairs,’ which had the chief management of the course of government, and was the precursor of the modern cabinet.
1665. Pepys, Diary, 14 Oct. It being read before the King, Duke, and the Caball, with complete applause. Ibid. (1667), 31 March. Walked to my Lord Treasurer’s, where the King, Duke of York, and the Cabal, and much company withal. Ibid. (1667), (1877), V. 128. The Cabal at present, being as he says the King, and the Duke of Buckingham, and Lord Keeper, the Duke of Albemarle and privy seale.
b. in Hist. applied spec. to the five ministers of Charles II., who signed the Treaty of Alliance with France for war against Holland in 1672: these were Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley (Earl of Shaftesbury), and Lauderdale, the initials of whose names thus arranged chanced to spell the word cabal.
This was merely a witticism referring to sense 6; in point of fact these five men did not constitute the whole ‘Cabal,’ or Committee for Foreign Affairs; nor were they so closely united in policy as to constitute a ‘cabal’ in sense 5, where quot. 1670 shows that three of them belonged to one ‘cabal’ or clique, and two to another. The name seems to have been first given to the five ministers in the pamphlet of 1673, ‘England’s Appeal from the private Cabal at White-hall to the Great Council of the nation … by a true lover of his country.’ Modern historians often write loosely of the Buckingham-Arlington administration from the fall of Clarendon in 1667 to 1673 as the Cabal Cabinet or Cabal Ministry.
1673. England’s Appeal, 18. The safest way not to wrong neither the cabal nor the truth is to take a short survey of the carriage of the chief promoters of this war.
1689. Mem. God’s 29 Years Wonders, § 25. 72. The great Ahitophel, the chiefest head-piece … of all the Cabal.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1766), I. 430. This junta … being called the cabal, it was observed that cabal proved a technical word, every letter in it being the first letter of those five, Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington and Lauderdale.
a. 1734. North, Exam., III. vi. ¶ 41. 453. The … Promoters of Popery, supposed to rise by the Misfortunes of the Earl of Clarendon, were the famous CABAL.
1762. Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), V. lxix. 163. When the Cabal entered into the mysterious alliance with France.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng. (1864), I. 101. It happened by a whimsical coincidence that, in 1671, the Cabinet consisted of five persons the initial letters of whose names made up the word Cabal…. These ministers were therefore emphatically called the Cabal; and they soon made that appellation so infamous that it has never since their time been used except as a term of reproach.
7. attrib. or in obvious comb.
1673. [R. Leigh], Transpr. Reh., 36. By this time, the Politick Cabal-men were most of ’um set.
1674. R. Law, Mem. (1818), 61. The parliament was jealous of their caball lords.
1678. Trans. Crt. Spain, 189. They maintain themselves only by a Cabal-genius, without any foundation of justice or fidelity.
1700. Congreve, Way of World, I. i. Last night was one of their cabal nights.
1871. W. D. Christie, Life Shaftesbury, II. xii. 81. It is one of the counts of the heavy indictment of history against the so-called Cabal Ministry.
