However, Shakespeare soon began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. The opening soliloquy of "Richard III" has its roots in the self-declaration of Vice in medieval drama. At the same time, Richard's vivid self-awareness looks forward to the soliloquies of Shakespeare's mature plays. No single play marks a change from the traditional to the freer style. Shakespeare combined the two throughout his career, with "Romeo and Juliet" perhaps the best example of the mixing of the styles. By the time of "Romeo and Juliet", "Richard II", and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the mid-1590s, Shakespeare had begun to write a more natural poetry. He increasingly tuned his metaphors and images to the needs of the drama itself.