The MS opens with a poem titled ‘Epitre a M. Thieriot’. In the letter that follows, Voltaire writes that he sends a thousand compliments to his friend Bernard for cultivating the muses. He adds that he does not know why the public persists in believing that he wrote Montézume, adding that his scene in Zadig is set in Peru. He then turns to ‘Le Franc’ whom he claims has prevented Mademoiselle Dufresne from playing and expresses his doubts over the suitability of Mademoiselle Gossin for the role. Voltaire ends by remarking upon his ill health.

This MS is a prompt-copy of the play, likely written in the hand of Jean Baptiste Minet, the escrivain of the company. It is likely that Minet made his copy from one produced by Voltaire. It is arranged as follows:

• p.1: Acteurs
• p.2: Title
• p.3-18: Act One (p.13 blank)
• p.19-36: Act Two
• p.37-52: Act Three
• p.53-70: Act Four
• p.71-83: Act Five
• p.84: Blank
• p.85: List of Actors
• p.86-87: Pencilled list of some of the actors appearing in some of the scenes of the play
• [p.88]: Blank

The collection contains a preface and twenty-three other texts written by Voltaire under the pseudonyms of Catherine and Guillaume Vadé. Attached to these texts is a letter from Voltaire to Pierre Laurent Buirette written in the hand of Jean-Louis Wagnière in which Voltaire mocks what is happening in Paris and elsewhere. He writes that he has not read a public paper for many years but that he nevertheless knows what is going on in Moscow, adding that the Empress of Russia ‘condescended’ to inform hi that she had converted Abraham Chaumeix to a tolerant the year before. Voltaire writes that if Abraham has done ‘this stupidity’, sold his wife to a Boyar, and instead of obtaining oxen, cows, sheep, and servants had fallen into poverty then it was probably because he was a drunkard and wine is very expensive in Scythia. By contrast, he notes, de Belloy’s friend in Paris, Fréron, earns cheap money and gets drunk in the same way. Voltaire then discusses actors, saying that de Belloy’s remarks on the actors in Paris does not surprise him because they are so rich in their own content that they can easily do without Racine’s verses. He bemoans their tendencies to cut out sections of Racine’s verses and insert their own instead. In the concluding section of the letter, Voltaire writes that he thinks the printers of Paris know as much as the comedians.

Voltaire writes to his ‘divins anges’ in order to present them with his Mémoire à tous les anges. He notes that their committee is as good as the committee of the intended recipient because it is made up of people from the gambling den and very good actors, and that they must inform the recipient that they cannon share his opinion on most of his objections. The committee, he writes, shudder with indignation when it is suggested that they put their play on ice and that though the recipient quotes Zaire at them, they miss out the vital context of love. The committe believes that the recipient is mistaken in thinking that Olympe is the leading role as he only assumes this position when Statira is dead. Voltaire concludes by discussing Olympe’s willingness to throw herself into the stake for love, writing ‘if you don’t find that honestly beautiful, in my faith you are difficult.’