A Royal Divorce

A play by W.G. Wills and G.G. Collingham, depicting the romantic relationship and political divorce between Napoleon and his wife Josephine.

Establishing the authorship of this play has been an interesting and rather complex matter. The play is often attributed to one, or both, of two people, namely W.G. Wills (1828–1891) and/or C.C. Collingham [sic], depending on the sources consulted.

Wills, a recognized and very experienced Irish dramatist, novelist and painter, was undoubtedly one of the authors of the play, which he apparently completed shortly before his death in 1891, the year in which it was performed at the Olympic Theatre in London.

This attribution relies on the fact that the play is also referred to quite often in Joyce's Finnigan's Wake where it is ascribed to Wills alone, as it is in newspapers reports one finds on performances in Australia at the start of the 20th century. Margot Bryant, Freda Godfrey's biographer, also ascribes the play to Wills alone.

On the other hand "C.C. Collingham" is only noted in film websites, where the name is listed as the author (or co-author) of a play that was the source of the 1926 British historical drama film directed by Alexander Butler, a film later remade as a sound film (1938). On the IMDb site[1], the name is in fact quoted as one of three authors: C.C. Collingham, Walter Summers, W.G. Wills.

One source however, Alan Goble's The Complete Index of Literary Sources in Film , suggests (correctly, it turns out) that the text, published in 1891, is actually by BOTH authors. Why then is Collingham so often ignored?

Besides Wills's obvious reputation, a key problem seems to be a mistake with the initials, for it appears that the intials of the second author are not "C.C." , but "G.G." and that the real author is G.G. Collingham, the nom de plume of Mary Helen White (d.1923), also a known playwright in London. This is evident when one consults the publicity material for the play, including the 1891 posters by Albert Morrow for the first performance in 1891, which say clearly: "A Royal Divorce. Playwright: W.G. Wills. Playwright: G.G. Collingham. Olympic Theatre, London. 10.9.189."[2] .

The third author (Summer) mentioned in the IMDb website is most probably the scriptwriter for the film.

Performance history in South Africa

A play by this name was first performed in South Africa by Leonard Rayne in 1899; it was to become one of Rayne's greatest successes, Napoleon being his most memorable role, repeated countless times. It was also his final role before his death in 1925. The text used is uncertain, but is most probably the one by W.G. Wills.