'In plot, in imagery, in structure, Richard II offers us little thatis not already present or implicit in Edward II. 'Assess Shakespeare's debt to Marlowe in this play.

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'In plot, in imagery, in structure, Richard II offers us little that

is not already present or implicit in Edward II.'

Assess Shakespeare's debt to Marlowe in this play.

It was the very nature of the Renaissance writers to use as their subjects base a story or myth that had already been told. Renaissance means 're-birth' and their idea of creativity did not include originality, to show their skill was to take a plot that had already been told either by history, a predecessor or their contemporaries and to rework it and in doing so surpass it. "The object of history for many Renaissance writers was to learn the mistakes of the past in order to avoid them in the future." (Smith, viii). Our modern idea, received from the Romantics, of having to have originality to be able to create a best-seller was not what the Renaissance was about at all, in fact it was the opposite. The Renaissance period was about reliving what their ancestors had already achieved and being able to learn from their mistakes and advances. To be accused of having massive debt to a writer was neither uncommon nor frowned upon, and so