Further to yesterday's post on Shakespeare's reported lack of revision during the writing process, I was reminded of an observation made by a very great music teacher I once had. Essentially, he compared music to tissue, in which every part is dependent on every other part. Therefore, in the composition process, every move resounds with implications for the rest of the piece, and any change made early in a piece will require others to be made later. So it's in a composer's best interest to have thorough comprehension of all matters connected to form, both small-scale and large, before any decisions are made. This, evidently, is exactly what Shakespeare had as a dramatist. His plays are the proof of it; they are, for most commentators and readers, the most unified works of art in literature. And this brings me back to my summation yesterday: The primary concern in the study of Shakespeare should be the attempt to understand, as precisely as possible, what that knowledge entailed.