"The most tragical history with a divine dénouement. "Zarathustra becomes gradually more grand. His doctrine develops with his grandeur. "The Eternal Return shines like a sun setting on the last catastrophe." "In the last section great synthesis of him who creates, who loves, who destroys." In the month of August, Nietzsche had indicated a dénouement. His condition of mind was then very bad, and his work suffered in consequence. He now took up the draft again, and tried to make the best of it. It was a drama which he had the ambition to write. He places his action in an antique frame, in a city devastated by the pest. The inhabitants wish to commence a new era. They seek a lawgiver; they call Zarathustra, who descends among them, followed by his disciples. "Go," said he to them, "announce the Eternal Return." The disciples are afraid and avow it. "We can endure thy doctrine," they say, "but can this multitude?" "We must make an experiment with truth!" answers Zarathustra. "And if the truth should destroy humanity, so be it!" The disciples hesitate again. He commands: "I have put in your hands the hammer which must strike men; strike!" But they fear the people and abandon their master. Then Zarathustra speaks alone. The crowd as it hears him is terrified, loses its temper and its wits. "A man kills himself: another goes mad. A divine pride of the poet animates him: everything _must_ be brought to light. And at the moment that he announces the Eternal Return and the Superman together, he yields to pity. "Everyone disowns him. 'We must,' they say, 'stifle this doctrine and kill Zarathustra.' "'There is now no soul on the earth who loves me,' he murmurs; 'how shall I be able to love life?' "He dies of sadness on discovering the suffering which is his work. _"'Through love I have caused the greatest sorrow;_ now I yield to the sorrow which I have caused.' "All go, and Zarathustra, left alone, touches his serpent with his hand: 'Who counsels wisdom to me?'--The serpent bites him. The eagle tears the serpent to bits, the lion throws itself upon the eagle. As soon as Zarathustra sees the combat of the animals, he dies. "Fifth Act: The Lauds. "The league of the faithful who sacrifice themselves upon the tomb of Zarathustra. They had fled: now, seeing him dead, they become the inheritors of his soul and rise to his height. "Funeral ceremony: 'It is we who have killed him.'--The Lauds. "The great Noon. Midday and eternity."