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The text contains substantial variants, many of which do not appear in the print editions. A leaf between f.199 and f.200 appears to be missing.
The text contains substantial variants, many of which do not appear in the print edition.
This copy of the text contains substantial variants, many of which do not appear in the print editions. A correction on line 23 which corrects ‘déisme’ to ‘théisme’ indicates that the MS was produced between 1748 and 1750.
Count von Manteuffel sent this copy of the poem to Count von Brühl from Berlin on 21 October 1740.
Voltaire acquired this manuscript from the chevalier de Maudave in 1760 and presented it to the Bibliothèque de roi (now the Bibliothèque nationale de France) in August 1761. The text is a commentary on the Vedas, though rather than being a precious authentic text as Voltaire imagined, it was composed by Jesuits in Pondicherry. He inscribed a title page (f.iir) outlining what he knew and believed about the manuscript and its history.
The text dates to 1759, with Voltaire adding to the manuscript in 1761.
This volume contains four items:
This poem would later feature in a letter from Voltaire to Cideville (D2512) and was published in the 1745 edition of his works (Tome VI, in Stances à madame du Châtelet) published in Amsterdam by Etienne Ledet. An expanded version was printed in Tome V of the 1746 London edition.
Voltaire’s candidature was supported by six individuals between 1 April and 10 October 1743. His supporters were:
His election was confirmed by Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Aubigny on 3 November that year.
This MS is a copy of Acts One and Two only. It is probable that the princess drew parallels between Lusignan’s fate and her own captivity. After her liberation, engraved words etched into the wallpaper of her antechamber at the prison were found. These read: ‘je désire Zaïre, Alzire, Amenaïde’.
An account of the Princess writing this manuscript survives. Alcide de Beauchesne noted that the guardian of the Temple prison, Gomin, found the Pricess with a copy of Zaire the day after the death of the Dauphin. He writes: ‘elle écrivait, elle avait un livre ouvert sous les yeux ; ce livre c’était un volume du théâtre de Voltaire, et ce qu’elle copiait, c’était la tragédie de Zaïre. Je possède les deux premiers actes de cette tragédie écrits, sous les verrous du Temple, de la main de la jeune Marie-Thérèse’. A letter from Gomin’s widow, Jeanne Madeleine Antoinette Lafontaine, to Alcide de Beauchesne was sold alongside this MS copy of Zaïre in which she bequeaths him several manuscripts including this one.
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