It’s that time of year: Romeo and Juliet with the kids in the two sections of high school English I have the privilege of teaching. We’ve finished the second act, and today students took the act quiz. One element of the quiz is the quote identification.

“It’s not a question of memory,” I told them when I introduced the idea at the beginning of the unit. “It’s a matter of logic. I choose quotes that you can logically piece together and determine who said it.

They generally have done well, and this year’s group is no exception. Still, there are some who surprise me. For example, one quote from today’s quiz was Romeo’s response to Juliet about how he got there: “With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls; / For stony limits cannot hold love out[.]” One student explained it thus:

You know this is Romeo because he is the one who climbed over the Capulet’s wall to go to Juliet’s balcony. He is also the fatalist, so he would be the one that would do anything to see Juliet, even risking being caught or injury.

Another passage: “He jests at scars that never felt a wound.”

The person that said this line had to have been Romeo because when he says this about Mercutio, it’s directly after hearing him tease Romeo about his personality. He is justifying that Mercutio is saying these things because he does not know what it feels like. Mercutio would be the one to joke about Romeo’s love because he is the “joker”. Romeo is just testifying against what he says with an excuse for the reason Mercutio says this.

And just a few weeks ago, they claimed the could never understand the Bard.