best Shakespearean tragedy?

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I decided to chuck the less notable ones into "Other". (TS Elliot once said Coriolanus was better than Hamlet which is ...)

My order goes

Hamlet (by country mile)
Lear
Macbeth
Othello
R & J
A & C

[they don't love you like i love you]

I didn't like any of them. Despite all the criticism of her Lena Dunham is actually a much better writer than Shakespeare ever was.

[DemPGH]

There is some really beautiful writing in Macbeth and Hamlet. Macbeth's "Tomorrow and tomorrow" speech is really sobering.

Hamlet is the most interesting of his tragic characters. He chooses to test people and run little experiments to verify his hunches rather than take direct, immediate action. Really interesting.

Toss-up between those two.

[Mike Thick]

This forum! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Seriously, probably Hamlet

[Mr. Smith]

King Lear, specifically because of the ending and The Fool.

After That:

Othello
The Play That Shall Not Be Named
Hamlet
R&J
A&C

[Murica!]

Shakespeare was a talentless drunk(normal)

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

McBeth & Richard III. How, a mighty soldier was defeated by a Prince in MacBeth

[homelycooking]

Lear. I know nothing!

[DemPGH]

Richard III.

As a Ricardian, I take exception to that one! But it's a fine example of really awful Tudor propaganda.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Dick the Sh!t isn't a Tragedy, but a History.

[angus]

That's what I was thinking as well, except that I didn't know he was known as Dick the Sh¡t.  Moreover, only Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth actually have the word Tragedy in their original titles.

Voted Othello, although I have seen Hamlet more times than any of the others, and finally it is the play that I understand the best.  Romeo and Juliet is the only one in which I have played a role on the stage.  The best, however, is Othello.  I have wanted to play Iago for a long time.  I think I could pull off a realistic Iago. 

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The Scottish Play is my personal favorite.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Only read Hamlet and MacBeth. Both were great.

[dead0man]

I'm no Shakespearean scholar, don't really know enough to vote in this poll, but that's not why I'm here.  I'm here because of the haters.  WTF?  You see the thread title, you know you don't like Shakespeare (because, I suspect, you have a strong desire to be cooler than the room), but you feel the need to come in and sh**t all over it.  I don't understand.

[angus]

you feel the need to come in and sh**t all over it. 

In all fairness, I should point out that I take a big dump on every thread I encounter.  I'm not just singling out Shakespeare as a particularly worth subject for a bowel movement.

[Antonio the Sixth]

No Julius Caesar or Richard III?

But yeah, I agree Hamlet is the greatest.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Hamlet, one of my very favorite plays.

In high school, I had to read Romeo & Juliet my freshman year, Julius Caesar my sophomore year, and both Macbeth and Hamlet my senior year.  I loved Hamlet, and Romeo & Juliet was my next favorite.  I didn't care much for Macbeth at all.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

For the record the list of Tragedies is as follows:

Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida*, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Timon of Athens, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus.

If it is not on that list it is not a Tragedy even if it may well be rather tragic.

_{*One of the Problem Plays so its inclusion is slightly iffy.}

[TDAS04]

Lean MacBeth.

[DemPGH]

Well, accepting Shakespeare's decided Tudor/Lancastrian bias, it is very debatable whether or not he was even trying to write history when he wrote Richard III. Evidence points to the fact that he was trying to serve up a bad guy, and his portrayal of Richard as a rampaging, scheming hump-back with a withered arm that was shorter than the other one is quite grotesque and not supported by anything. It's a total invention like Macbeth and the witches. Also, the formal title of it is actually "The Tragedy of King Richard the Third." I think it defaults into his History plays because he wrote about real people around the same time who are portrayed in a way that is far more reasonable, notably Henry VI.

Shakespeare's depiction of Bosworth is laughable. Henry actually kills Richard in the play after Richard says something like, "It seems I have defeated seven Richmonds today, and still he keeps coming!" Rather, Henry hid behind a whole retinue of people while two noblemen betrayed Richard, and still Richard killed Henry's standard-bearer, unhorsed his personal bodyguard, and got to within feet of Henry. Richard would have made quick work of Henry had he been able to get to him. Henry had never been in a battle and was raised on courtly protocol. Richard meanwhile successfully led one of Edward IV's divisions at Tewkesbury when he was like 18 or 19. The thing is, even Henry's propagandist, Polidoro Virgili, gave Richard credit for fighting well and bravely, etc. The whole "my kingdom for a horse!" seems to have been the opposite as well. Richard turned down a chance to flee.

In short? Shakespeare's history is biased, yeah, but in this case outright fiction. I'm trying to think of a modern day equivalent. Maybe Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter or whatever that stupid thing was.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Actually we now know that Dick the Sh!t was spinally deformed (if not to the extent that was subsequently claimed post mortem), which was literally the best thing to come out of the whole 'skeleton discovered under a car park in Leicester' thing other than the 'car park' detail.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

In short? Shakespeare's history is biased, yeah, but in this case outright fiction.

Uh, Shakespeare's plays *are* fiction. That's kind of the point.

Ricardians are some of the most tedious people in Britain.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

As for Shakespeare, I cast a sympathy vote for Romeo and Juliet, which is IMO paradoxically underrated due to its status in popular culture.

Hamlet is probably the best objectively, despite the plot being a complete mess.

[Metis]

Im shocked about the lack of comments on the most remarkable Titus Andronicus.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Titus is objectively a bad play. Just stupid.