Why is romeo romeo wherefore art thou romeo the most famous quote?

Answer 1

Hard to say, really, since a great many people misunderstand it. It is not the first well-known quotation from the famous balcony scene. That would be "What light through yonder window breaks?" One theory might be that it is remembered as the first line of an excellent speech for Juliet, in the same way that people remember the first line of an excellent speech for Hamlet, "To be or not to be, that is the question?", or the first line of an excellent speech for Mark Antony, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears!" People used to memorize and deliver these Shakespearean speeches at amateur shows or to entertain people at parties. The number of speeches which people learned and delivered in this way was actually rather small, and rarely exceeded one per play, if that, so that people would say, "Oh yes, Romeo and Juliet. That's the play that has the speech that starts 'Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo', isn't it?"