![54844-cropped-sm-aspect-ratio-1586-918](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2024/04/54844-cropped-sm-aspect-ratio-1586-918.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
“According to the scrip”: Shakespeare’s text from cue scripts to promptbooks and beyond
Brittany N. Williams looks at cue scripts and their importance to actors in Shakespeare’s time.
![IMG_0246-scaled-aspect-ratio-1694-1142](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2023/09/IMG_0246-scaled-aspect-ratio-1694-1142.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Visualizing Race Virtually: Exploring the art of Shakespeare
David Sterling Brown writes about the images and ideas presented in his virtual-reality exhibition, which features art from the Folger collection.
![Chess set chess board with pieces](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/07/017887-fb-1.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
A game of chess
Take a closer look at some unusual chess sets in the Folger collection, spanning continents and centuries.
![Heartsease cordial in a cocktail purple pansy floating in pink cocktail](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/06/2022-06-01-14.57-heartsease-cocktail.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Love-in-idleness, Part One: Adapting an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial
Marissa Nicosia adapts an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial. This purple pansy syrup was used to “clear the heart” – to treat the chest and lungs or to reduce fever – but also for healing heartaches.
![056676 detail](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/11/056676-detail-1.jpeg?fit=10%2C10)
Folger Finds: Edwin Booth's royal tunic
Marking the anniversary of actor Edwin Booth’s birth on November 13, 1833, we explore a stunning historical costume from the Folger collection: an embroidered-velvet tunic that Booth wore onstage as King Richard III.
![DSC_0073 sm Miss C.B. Currie. Miniature, Cosway binding, 1928. James Boaden, An Inquiry into the Authenticity of Various Pictures. 1824. Folger Shakespeare Library.](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/01/DSC_0073-sm-1.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Five Faces of Shakespeare
Among the many treasures of the Folger is a lavish “Cosway binding” that includes five unique miniatures by a 20th-century British artist, “Miss C. B. Currie,” based on the images from the book itself. One of the oddest to modern…
![King Henry VIII prompt book King Henry VIII prompt book](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2018/06/Shakespeare-Under-the-Stars-King-Henry-VIII-promptbook.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Explore promptbooks from the 1950s festival Shakespeare Under the Stars
The Folger collection contains a number of prompt books from Shakespeare Under the Stars productions, which were gifts from Arthur Lithgow.
![Othello, from page to stage](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2017/06/Facebook-Collage-Image.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
What's my line? Exploring promptbooks for Othello
Promptbooks let us peer into the minds of some of history’s greatest theater-makers and see how they imagined Shakespeare’s plays.
![Romeo and Juliet cards Shakespeare games](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2017/03/Romeo-Juliet-cards.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
The game's the thing
See examples of creative and beautifully illustrated card games and board games in the Folger collection that use Shakespeare quotes and make references to his plays.
![prompt-ayli-23-page-25](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2017/01/PROMPT-AYLI-23-page-25.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Play scripts as you like them
Promptbooks help stage managers and actors keep their, er, act straight. Explore these ‘As You Like It’ promptbooks from the Folger collection.
![Flower Banner Elizabethan Garden](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2016/05/FlowerBanner.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
The Elizabethan Garden: 11 plants Shakespeare would have known well
The text for this blog post is adapted from an article in the Summer 2009 issue of Folger Magazine. Shakespeare, who grew up in a riverside country town and was the grandchild of prosperous farmers, refers with familiarity to an extraordinary number of plants…