The remoteness and dignity of ancient Egypt are reflected in the mask of the Priest of Osiris. The poetical sensitiveness of the mask of an Oriental poet was inspired by the faces in early Persian miniatures. There is much of wistfulness and subtle character delineation in the mask of the jester. This mask was worn with a parti-colored costume, cap and bells. The possibilities of character masks are suggested by the photographs of the “Christmas Masque” given by the children’s singing classes of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and by the ninth grade special art class of Fairmount Junior High School, assisted by the Music School Settlement at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Christmas, 1925. [Illustration: [Mask]] [Illustration: [Costume]] CHAPTER IV The Costume and Setting for the Mask Costume is a means of introducing characters, of telling time and place, and of creating dramatic mood. A costume should be different from ordinary clothes, and should have a characteristic quality that will help an actor to interpret his part. Imagine Charlie Chaplin in any other outfit than his own. Do you think this costume of his came by chance? Much thought and experiment went into its creation. Have you ever noticed how this artist wears his shabby, droll, almost pathetic costume, and how he uses it to play upon your feelings? His work is an illustrious example of a great artist’s use of costume. There are two kinds of costumes, those which grow out of pure imagination and those which reproduce the costumes worn in different periods in different countries. The latter are spoken of as period costumes. Under imaginative costumes come those of Maeterlinek’s _Blue Bird_ which represent fire, water, milk, sugar, bread, and those of the old morality plays, such as virtue, vice, modesty, poverty, envy, and greed. _Imaginative Costumes._ Three things are essential to the imaginative costume: appropriate line, appropriate color, and appropriate material. The kind of costume that would represent wind would require drapery, the lines of which would suggest the movement of wind when the body was in motion. Water, however, would require straight, downward falling lines. The color of an imaginative costume is important. Who can imagine a fairy in black or a gnome in white, a character representing spring in russet brown or one representing autumn in yellow-green? Materials likewise have their appropriate uses. Fairies are not weighted down with velvet, neither are gnomes given costumes of gauze. _Period Costumes._ When we come to period costumes, accurate information is necessary. The quest leads us to libraries, with their illustrated books, photographs, and plates; to historical and art museums with whatever they may have of original material.