The Case for King Lear as the Best

Sarah Polley as Cordelia and Charles Kingsman as King Lear

I cannot seem to find a satisfactory clip on YouTube on Act V scene iii, when King Lear enters center stage with the dead Cordelia in his arms:

Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones:
Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so
That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone for ever!
I know when one is dead, and when one lives;
She's dead as earth. Lend me a looking-glass;
If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
Why, then she lives.

This offering from the Royal Shakespeare Company makes for sound, academic reading, but terrible dramatic acting!  You see, King Lear is distraught, so profoundly that his wail is less howl and more guttural, pained expression that comes from the very marrow of his bones.  I imagine Shakespeare simply had to translate this expression into words that fit his iambic pentameter, but if he had directed this production, he'd set the acting correctly.  The entire play builds up to this denouement, Lear as the agent of hubris, not just for himself but also for others, and Cordelia as its innocent victim.  It is a human tragedy of a tall order, because we see the fall of man, when conceit courses through him like poisoned blood.  It is a brilliant piece of drama.

The Millions engaged experts to offer what they saw as the best among Shakespearean plays, in honor of the Bard's 450th birthday on April 23rd 1564.  In Shakespeare’s Greatest Play? 5 Experts Share Their Opinions, Doug Lanier offers his bit on King Lear.

Now I have offered mine.