This manuscript is an inaccurate copy of Alexis Piron’s epitaph for Desfontaines in Voltaire’s hand. Instead of reading ‘Sous ce tombeau gît un auteur’, Voltaire’s version reads ‘Ci-dessous gît un orateur’. The original epitaph is Piron’s addition to Bret’s epigram dedicated to Desfontaines.

The text consists of ten verses.

A collection of about 60 poems and essays, primarily elegies, occasional verses, and verse epitaphs on the subjects of solitude, death, and the nature of humanity. The volume contains poems by Joseph Butler, John Dyer, David Garrick, James Grainger, Thomas Gray, Richard Jago, Charlotte Lennox, James Marriott, Ambrose Philips, Petrarch, William Vernon, Thomas Wharton, Isaac Watts, William Whitehead, Anthony Whistler, and Mrs. Barber. Other poem titles include: Ode to death, possibly by Abraham Richard Hawksworth; Virgil’s tomb; Ode to solitude and one in French, Epistle de Mr. Voltaire.

Includes sections titled A reply, and Epitaph on Voltaire. Written as a response to item (13).