Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/565

Professor R. L Douglas ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 539 honors in Modern History. After talking his degree he was appointed a Lecturer in Foreign History, and a Leader of Home-reading Circles in connection with the Oxford University Extension Scheme. Professor Douglas was ordained in 1887, and worked for two years in a South-East London parish. -In 1889 he returnexl to Oxford, and remained there for six years. During this, his second period of residence in the University town, he began to apply himself more and more to the work of research, spending a considerable portion of his time at the Bodleian Library, and making frequent visits to Italy. He adopted as his special subject the history, literature, and art of the Renaissance. Subsequently he determined to devote himself entirely to literary and historical work. From November, 1895, to March, 1900, Professor Douglas resided for the most part in Italy, working in the archives and libraries there. He received great encouragement in his historical researches from leading historians, such as the late Bishop of London, Professor Villari of Florence, and Dr. Thomas Hodgkin ; whilst his literarv work won for him the friendship of Mr. George Meredith and Mr. W. E. Henley, and of some P'rench men of letters. In 1897 Profes.sor Douglas edited Geoffrey P'enton's " Certaine Tragicall Discourses" — an Elizabethan translation of some tales of Bandello — for Mr. Henley's admirable "Tudor Translations Series." His introduction, which embodies the results of a good deal of original research, deals with the influence of the Italian novel on the Elizabethan drama. In 1900, Professor Douglas published his monograph on Pra Angelicf), a work which" had occupied him for some years. The book was most favorably noticed in the leading P'nglish, American, and Continental reviews, and the large first edition was out of print In three or four months. As the season of 1900 was a bad one for all books except tho.se dealing with subjects connected with the war, the success of Professor Douglas's volume was the more remarkable. Professor Douglas is now completing a History of Siena, which was largely written in the Italian town. P'or Messrs. Murray, he is editing Crowe and Cavalcaselle's great work on Italian painting, the late Sir John Crowe's manuscripts having been placed in his hands. He is also writing a history of Savonarola's Convent, the convent of San Marco, Plorence, which will be published by Mr. George Allen. The Renaissance, its literature, art, and history, is not Profes.sor Douglas's only special subject of study, he is also deeply interested in the American revolutionary period. He has been asked to write a series of articles for a leading American review upon certain events in the War of Independence. For some years Professor Douglas was a constant contributor to the Bookman and the Daily Chronicle. Mr. Douglas has also contributed articles to the Nineteenth Century, the Guardian, and other leading reviews. Ever since taking his degree Professor Douglas has evinced a great interest in elementary education. He has acted as manager of a public elementary school, as an instructor of pupil teachers ; and when residing at Oxford as a graduate, he might himself have frequendy been found teaching in a public elementary school. Mr, Douglas was appointed Professor of Modern History and English Literature at the University of Adelaide at the commencement of the year 1900, and at the close of that year he was elected Dean of the P'aculty of Arts. JJ2