You are of course right, Greyeyes, but I was making a similar point more drastically. What makes the Shakespearean universe so interesting is that it holds a universe of patterned meaning (in one of the forms you describe, which differs from play to play) and a universe without meaning in the mind simultaneously. This is what gives the scepticism such power and tension. A play like Troilus and Cressida shows the tension at its most abandoned.

I personally believe that he moves towards a resolution of that tension in the late plays by an acceptance of common life (usually displayed in the reconciliation of the dispossessed father with his long lost daughter).

yours, Peter T.