The manuscript offers variants of Act IV, l.166a-182 and Act V, l.53-68. It is the only known original manuscript of Alzire to have survived. The variant for Act V is written in the left-hand margin of f.1r in Voltaire’s hand.

The manuscript is a quatrain dedicated to Mme la Comtesse de Rochefort, deemphasizing the significance of the god Mercury in favour of his ‘voisine’. There is no trace of the correspondence between Voltaire and Marie Thérèse de Larlan de Kercadio, la comtesse de Rochefort. However, she plays the role of the Baroness de Croupillac in L’Enfant prodigue.

The manuscript is a draft of a letter praising Frederick II, especially his virtues of hospitality and kindness. Additionally, the author draws parallels between the potential for passionless love for God and that for mathematical truths.

The manuscript is a copy of a letter discussing the mysteries of mortality, death, soul and transience, dismissing the atheistic worldview featured in Baron d’Holbach’s System of Nature, and featuring a famous phrase by Voltaire, reading ‘Si Dieu n’existait pas, il faudrait l’inventer.’

This manuscript covers almost the entirety of Chapter 22 of Histoire de l’établissement du christianisme, as it appears in the print edition. It does not contain the last two paragraphs. The corrections made to the MS were carried over in the publication of the book and suggest that it is a definitive version of the text. The MS deals with issues such as the hypocrisy of monotheistic religions and their clergy, and the fanaticism they generate, promoting enlightened despotism. The word ‘dieu’ is systematically written without capital letters, a particularity that was not carried into the printed edition.

Voltaire discusses his dismay at Marie-Louis Denis [née Mignot] [née Mignot] having compromised herself with a gambling den. He writes that he has sent letters to de Richelieu making his feelings about the gambling den clear and places the matter in the hands of God, adding that he did in Zulime as much as Louis XIV and Louis XV would allow him to do. He ends by asking the recipient to put him ‘at the feet of Madame la Duchesse du Maine’, writing that she is a ‘predestined soul’ who will love comedy until her last moment. He advises the recipient to administer her a beautiful play rather than an extreme unction if she falls ill and concludes that ‘one dies as one has lived.’

Voltaire writes that a long illness has prevented him from replying to Marie-Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise Du Deffand for some time. He adds that his illness was caused by too much work, but notes that he seeks her approval as it consoles him for all of the critics at court. He discusses two characters in his Alzire (Gusman and Grandval), before mentioning Alexander Pope and Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbur, and discussing their views on religion.