playwrights worked in both the classic types of drama, tragedy and comedy. they also began their own type of history play, mainly about earlier english kings and the events of their reigns. shakespeare's "richard iii" and marlowe's "edward ii" are two examples of this type of english history play. plays were often written in poetry; early plays were mainly in rhymed verse, though as time passed playwrights came to prefer unrhymed blank verse. prose was also used in some plays, mostly for comedy.