'The First and the Last' is a play by the British writer John Galsworthy. It was based on a short story he previously published. The story centers on a man named Larry Durrant, who is a disappointment to his family. Henry Wallen, the long-missing and disreputable foreign husband of Larry's lover, Wanda, shows up on her doorstep. He has been gone for three years and tries to extort money from the lovers, and pulls a knife on Larry when he refuses to pay. In the ensuing fight the couple accidentally kill him when he strikes his head on the fire fender.