Samuel Johnson had his doubts that finding a best in Shakespeare was even possible. If I had to pick a favorite play, though, it would probably be Macbeth. The limits and temptations of power gained by improper means remains a lesson ignored all over the world today.
Know I've linked to that essay before, but seriously, take ten minutes and give it a read if you haven't already. The literary theory the underlies the first seven paragraphs hold up against just about anything written since, and the demolition of the dramatic unities in the second half makes one wonder how they ever got off the ground in the first place. It's also refreshing to read a critic who is not so terrified of Shakespeare's reputation- or so envious of it, like Shaw- that he's unwilling to point out some obvious flaws, and remains content with empty praise. Johnson praises the Bard, to be sure, and in the highest terms, but not without a little salt thrown in with the sugar.
PS. I had this essay in mind when I wrote recently that David Foster Wallace's legacy had nothing to fear or hope from his suicide.
Ex ignorantia ad sapientiam; e luce ad tenebras
Shakespeare in Love.
- derumi (del-me)
"Bobby Fischer? Man, that guy is crazy!" - Mike Tyson
When Banquo gets whacked.
Lear is the greatest play ever written.
What's WS's worst play?
Put me down for Romeo and Juliet (besides I got my picture taken by Juliet's statue in Verona). As for bad Shakespeare, I'll go with Coriolanus.
Illegitimi non carborundum.
Most American readers skip the English Histories, and that's a shame. Henry IV, Part 1 is really good; you've got the rowdy Prince Hal, the wonderfully insane Hotspur, a mystical Welshman, a husband and wife who are in love but can't speak the same language, and Falstaff!
But for true sociopathic political conniving, you gotta go Richard III. Scheming, lying, wooing people who hate you, and curses--page after page of curses, and that just in the first act. The next time someone cuts you off in traffic, just lay down some Queen Margaret. Macbeth was good, too, but Richard III is, at least based on history. Just watch out for the backstory; you've basically got to read up on your War of the Roses before you read this thing.
Just to be different, I'll champion Antony and Cleopatra...
"he plowed her, and she cropped..."
