Editing Romeo and Juliet (section)

===The balcony scene===
The balcony scene was introduced by Da Porto in 1524. He had Romeo walk frequently by her house, "sometimes climbing to her chamber window", and wrote, "It happened one night, as love ordained, when the moon shone unusually bright, that whilst Romeo was climbing the balcony, the young lady ... opened the window, and looking out saw him".{{sfn|da Porto|1868|p=10}} After this they have a conversation in which they declare eternal love to each other. A few decades later, Bandello greatly expanded this scene, diverging from the familiar one: Julia has her nurse deliver a letter asking Romeo to come to her window with a rope ladder, and he climbs the balcony with the help of his servant, Julia and the nurse (the servants discreetly withdraw after this).{{sfn|Scarci|1993–1994}}

<!-- FIXME: I'm really not sure if the next paragraph is relevant. Comments on the The Atlantic website already tore down Leveen's argument, even without referring to the original Da Porto story.-->
Nevertheless, in October 2014, Lois Leveen pointed out in ''[[The Atlantic]]'' that the original Shakespeare play did not contain a balcony; it just says that Juliet appears at a window.{{sfn|Leveen|2014}} The word ''balcone'' is not known to have existed in the English language until two years after Shakespeare's death.{{sfn|OED: balcony}} The balcony was certainly used in [[Thomas Otway]]'s 1679 play, ''[[The History and Fall of Caius Marius]]'', which had borrowed much of its story from ''Romeo and Juliet'' and placed the two lovers in a balcony reciting a speech similar to that between Romeo and Juliet. Leveen suggested that during the 18th century, [[David Garrick]] chose to use a balcony in his adaptation and revival of ''Romeo and Juliet'' and modern adaptations have continued this tradition.{{sfn|Leveen|2014}}