After his day, even for Northerners who wish to write well, there will be no more '_rum-ram-ruf_ by lettre'.[13] [Foot-note 11: And for to speke of other holynesse, He hath in prose translated Boece, And of the Wrechede Engendrynge of Mankynde As man may in pope Innocent ifynde, And made the Lyfe also of Seynt Cecile; He made also, gon ys a grete while, Origenes upon the Maudeleyne. (_Legend of Good Women_, Prologue A, ll. 424 ff.)] [Foot-note 12: _Parson's Tale_, at the end.] [Foot-note 13: _Prologue to Parson's Tale_, l. 43.] III In outlining the main movements of the century, I have mentioned incidentally the fortunes of certain kinds of composition,—the restriction of the lyrical form to devotional uses; the long dearth in the records of humorous tales; the decadence of romances in rime, and the flourishing of alliterative romances. The popular taste for stories was still unsatisfied, and guided authors, from Robert Mannyng to Chaucer, in their choice of subjects or method of treatment. Translators were busier than ever in making Latin and French works available to a growing public who understood no language but English; and of necessity the greater number of our specimens are translations, ranging from the crude literalness of Michael of Northgate to the artistic adaptation seen in Gower's tales. But the chief new contribution of the century is the vernacular Miracle Play, with which the history of the English drama begins. Miracle plays grew out of the services for the church festivals of Easter and Christmas. Towards the end of the tenth century a representation of the Three Maries at the Sepulchre is provided for in the English Easter service. Later, the Shepherds seeking the Manger and the Adoration of the Magi are represented in the services for the Christmas season. In their early form these dramatic ceremonies consist of a few sentences of Latin which were sung by the clergy with a minimum of dignified action.