OK, for all those of you who have been waiting with bated breath to know how Shakespeare's tragedies fare against one another in the estimation of readers of this blog, your moment has arrived. Here are the results of the normblog 'not exactly a poll'.
There were 39 entries and I collated them by using an adaptation of the Borda method: I assigned 4 points for a first place, 3 for a second, 2 for a third and 1 for a fourth. On this basis, it's King Lear by a whisker:
King Lear - 109I'm inclined to declare this a tie between Lear and Hamlet. (I can reveal that they were, in fact, separated by the final entry - received this morning. When I put the results together last night Lear and Hamlet were exactly level on 105 points. I'm sure you appreciate these details.) What I'm suggesting is that, for any large enough entry, these two plays will come in pretty close together and significantly ahead of Macbeth and Othello. Thanks to all who participated. My own entry? King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello.
Hamlet - 107
Macbeth - 94
Othello - 80
(Postscript for voting-system freaks. On first-place votes only Lear beats Hamlet by 16 to 12 - but Hamlet has fewer fourth-place votes.)