diff --git a/lib/jekyll/tags/include.rb b/lib/jekyll/tags/include.rb
index 54cee900..68636890 100644
--- a/lib/jekyll/tags/include.rb
+++ b/lib/jekyll/tags/include.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 module Jekyll
   module Tags
     class IncludeTag < Liquid::Tag
+
+      MATCHER = /(\w+)=(?:"([^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*)"|'([^'\\]*(?:\\.[^'\\]*)*)')/
+
       def initialize(tag_name, markup, tokens)
         super
         markup.strip!
@@ -13,8 +16,6 @@ module Jekyll
         end
       end
 
-      MATCHER = /(\w+)=(?:"([^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*)"|'([^'\\]*(?:\\.[^'\\]*)*)')/
-
       def parse_params(markup)
         @params = {}
         pos = 0