The abele spelen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈaːbələ ˈspeːlə(n)]) are a collection of four plays contained in the Van Hulthem Manuscript, which dates from 1410 and is in the collection of the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels (shelfmark hs.
In this sense the word ‘noble’ is used as the opposite of ‘religious’, i.e. 'profane'.
All four plays concern love, and are written in the style of stories of hoofse liefde or courtly love (note that the word ‘hof’ means ‘court’).
Respectively, the amorous pairs in the plays are Esmoreit and Damiët, Gloriant and Florentijn, Lanseloet and Sanderijn, Winter and Somer, the latter being an allegory.
The farces belong to the different abele spelen as follows: It has been suggested that there used to be six abele spelen because of the number of sotternieën belonging to them.