AustLit

Note on authorship:

This adaptation is sometimes credited to Edmund Duggan, who did write for this dramatic company.

Reviews of the original performances in Echuca note that it was 'adapted to the stage by Mr W. South, one of the members of the company' ('For the Term of His Natural Life', Riverine Herald, 5 April 1894, p.2.). This is William South, who had previously adapted His Natural Life for a production in New Zealand, and who had been a member of Her Majesty's Dramatic Company since at least 1894.

To make matters more complicated, Edmund Duggan's later performance of For the term of His Natural Life with Her Majesty's Dramatic Company in Adelaide (in 1897), when newspapers noted that 'The authorship of this present play is withheld' ('Theatre Royal', Chronicle, 11 December 1897, p.34), appears to be yet another adaptation, and not the version performed with the company in Brisbane.

In light of this shifting information, this has been treated as a second adaptation, rather than as a later performance of William South's 1886 adaptation, though it is possible that it is the latter. The Adelaide performance has been treated as yet another adaptation.