_When We Dead Awaken_," says Dr.  Elias, "with such labour and such
passionate agitation, so spasmodically and so feverishly, that those
around him were almost alarmed.  He must get on with it, he must get
on! He seemed to hear the beating of dark pinions over his head.  He
seemed to feel the grim Visitant, who had accompanied Alfred Allmers
on the mountain paths, already standing behind him with uplifted hand.
His relatives are firmly convinced that he knew quite clearly that this
would be his last play, that he was to write no more.  And soon the
blow fell." 

_When We Dead Awaken_ was published very shortly before Christmas 1899.
He had still a year of comparative health before him.  We find him in
March 1900, writing to Count Prozor: "I cannot say yet whether or not
I shall write another drama; but if I continue to retain the vigour of
body and mind which I at present enjoy, I do not imagine that I shall
be able to keep permanently away from the old battlefields.  However,
if I were to make my appearance again, it would be with new weapons
and in new armour." Was he hinting at the desire, which he had long
ago confessed to Professor Herford, that his last work should be a
drama in verse? Whatever his dream, it was not to be realised.  His