The poem commences on the front pastedown, continues on the verso of the title page, and concludes on the back pastedown. The copy is incomplete and features several variants. The lines are divided as follows:

• Front pastedown: l.1-12
• Verso of title page: l.38-58
• Back pastedown: l.115-132

The play was first performed at the Comédie-Française on 12 January 1750. Lekain played the role of Oreste 17 times between 1761 and 1777.

This copy of the poem is given an alternative title: ‘A Mr le Prince et Mme la Pcesse de Craon qui l’invitaient à venir chez eux.’

The MS was compiled by Christian Masius (1711-1787), professor in Erlangen from 1768 onwards. The compilation includes works by:

• Du Jurien
• Franz Hollmann
• d’Argens
• Alexander Pope
• Harris
• Voltaire
• David Hume
• Plato
• Bumet

The collection is divided into two parts. Part one contains excerpts from François Fénélon’s Les Aventures de Télémaque, partial translations from French and English editions of this text, and notes (especially vocabulary lists).

Part 2 includes excerpts from works by eighteenth-century French writers. The authors include: Jean-François Marmontel, Arnaud Berquin, Denis Diderot, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Antoine Condorcet, Jacques Antoine Guibert, Charles Pinot-Duclos, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The collection was likely compiled around 1800 by Michael Fischer, a student at the time.

Jeanne Julie Éléonore de Lespinasse begins by discussing the upcoming coronation of Louis XVI, stating that she suspects Turgot will remain in Paris for it. She mocks the people flocking to Turgot’s house from the countryside in order to secure his friendship. She then goes on to discuss two works that she has been reading: Le Monopole and Voltaire’s Diatribe à l’auteur des Ephémérides. Though she calls Voltaire the ‘viellard de Ferney’, she nevertheless adds that he has the vigour, gaiety, and frivolity of a twenty-year-old. She goes on to note that there are some good things and excellent traits in the work, concluding that what Voltaire says about Turgot’s work is ‘vraiment touchant’.

The collection contains poetry by:

• Jules Michelet
• Jean-François de La Harpe
• Voltaire
• Philippe Quinault
• Jean-Baptiste Rousseau
• Jacques Delille
• Casimir V
• Classical Latin poets

The collection includes poems by:

• Alexander Pushkin
• Kondraty Ryleyev
• Pyotyr Vyazemsky
• Arkady Rodzianko
• Alphonse de Lamartine
• Jean-Baptiste Rousseau
• Évariste de Parny
• Pierre-Louis Ginguené
• Voltaire