Eventually the theoretical tide in literary studies ebbed. The questions raised by theory were of the first importance. But even the academy finally tired of the narcissism with which theory addressed those questions. And was there not something hyperbolical about theory's scepticism? Did it not topple over into a modern form of pyrrhonism? It sometimes seemed as if literature's powers of subtlety of signification were being over-read as evidence of the impossibility of signification. On the subject of human nature, the constructivists began to be answered by more historically-minded philosophers who remembered that, a few years before the composition of Johnson's Preface to his edition of Shakespeare, in David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) that truly sceptical philosopher had found a way to hold in a single thought both his experience of the variable surface of human conduct and his faith in constant principles of human nature: "The internal principles and motives [of human nature] may operate in a uniform manner, notwithstanding these seeming irregularities; in the same manner as the winds, rain, clouds, and other variations of the weather are supposed to be governed by steady principles; though not easily discoverable by human sagacity and enquiry."

Although the fortunes of theory as a practice waned, its impact was lasting. In particular, critics who were not in thrall to theory nevertheless showed little appetite to revive the ethical criticism upon the rubble of which the theoreticians had erected their own, brief, period of authority. Post-theory, criticism of Shakespeare moved in three main directions. First, there was a turn to history, in the form of the "New Historicism". Historically-grounded readings of the plays might revive the flavour of the old ethical criticism, without being so vulnerable to the powerful corrosives which theory had used so destructively on that earlier school. Second, there was a revival of interest in theatre history, and in positioning Shakespeare within the dramatic archive. Third, there was a resurgence of interest in authorship studies, particularly in the phenomenon of collaborative composition. These developments all marked at once an advance and a retreat. They showed an impressive gain in various forms of technical power and accomplishment (historical contextualisation, early modern theatrical institutions, textual analysis of authorship). At the same time, however, they revealed the academy turning in on itself and retreating further from the possibility of addressing a general educated readership.