There are variants at lines a, b, 2, 4, 11, 14, 19, 26, 30, 35-36.

This MS presents the unauthorised changes proposed by Étienne Noël Damilaville and Nicolas-Claude Thiriot, as well as the corresponding deletions to Voltaire’s original text.

The play was first performed at the Comédie française on 17 March 1764. Lekain was to perform in the production 10 times between that year.

The poem appeared in a letter from Voltaire to Adrien Michel Hyancinthe Blin de Sainmore, written from Ferney and dated 15 December 1761.

The poem appeared in a letter from Voltaire to Adrien Michel Hyancinthe Blin de Sainmore, written from Ferney and dated 15 December 1761.

The copy was produced by Blin de Sainmore. The letter consists of 16 lines of verse in four stanzas known as ‘Stances à Monsieur Blin de Sainmore’.