Note 59 — Chapter II · SKETCH OF EMBLEM-BOOK LITERATURE PREVIOUS TO A.D. 1616.

A friend, Mr. Jan Hendrik Hessells, now of Cambridge, well acquainted with his native Dutch literature, informs me the “Spelen van Sinnen (Sinnespelen, Zinnespelen) were thus called because allegorical personifications, Zinnebeildige personen (in old Dutch, Sinnekens), for instance reason, religion, virtue, were introduced.” They were, in fact, “allegorical plays,” similar to the “Interludes” of England in former times.