Masefield, Ricketts, and The Coming of Christ        17

splendid,  others like Mrs Grundy."  He  concluded:   "I  have
bought a Rubens for Canada."

Masefield and Ricketts corresponded mostly about the costumes
but also about the use of the cathedral as setting. Ricketts, who
 

Charles Ricketts in his studio, ca. 1926.

bad designed for the Abbey Theater of Yeats and Lady Gregory,
for Shaw (most notably Saint Joan), for Granville-Barker, for the
D'Oyly Carte Company {The Mikado, The Gondoliers), and for
the Casson-Thorndike company, procured from his usual sources
in London the needed properties, armor, wigs, beards, and fabrics
even for lesser members of the cast who were required for econ¬
omy to sew their own costumes. As the date of the first perform¬
ance approached, be corresponded on such matters directly with