So.
I've been busy these days, trying to sell the wonders of Shakespeare, namely the beauties of "Romeo and Juliet," to a bunch of thirteen-year-old boys. It's taxing and trying work, I tell you, and I worry that I am selling old Will a little bit short.
For example. The balcony scene. What line do we focus on? Is it, perchance, "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou my Romeo? Deny thy father, etc. etc?" Nope. Is it, "What's in a name? A rose is a rose is a rose?" (Gotcha! That's part Gertrude Stein, that.) Nope. (And the boys never get my Gertrude Stein jokes either. Modernism is so lost on today's Young People.) No, the line we focus on is when Romeo is reduced to a vibrating ball of nerve endings: "Wilt thou deny me satisfaction?" (or something very close to it--I haven't got my Riverside with me at the breakfast table so excuse my rusty paraphrase.)
Yeah, we go straight for the nudge-nudge, wink-wink moments in my classroom.
But what's really interesting to me is that Juliet deflects Romeo's amorous intentions with (I think) feigned innocence--"Satisfaction?" she says, "Why, what on earth are you talking about Romeo? I have no earthly idea what you mean!" (You've only jumped over the fence and into my backyard, stalking me post-party, scaling the wall to talk to me in my nightie at the window of my bedroom, dear Romeo, I have NO idea where your mind is.) I think it is an act. She's sly, she's clever, she's more calculating than I've given her credit for in previous reads of the play. She uses Romeo's desire to achieve a measure of safety and assurance for herself--she'll give him what he wants, only if his intentions "be honorable," that is, if he'll propose marriage.
Which is, in itself, a beautiful move, because Juliet is, in effect, the one doing the proposing (oh forward!). She basically says to him, "Look, Romeo, if thou likest this, then thou shouldest put a ring on it."
It's all about bringing it back to Beyonce.