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 manuscript is a 19-line poem about the priest Desfontaine’s homosexuality, its historical impermissibility, and punitive measures. The manuscript does not replicate the entire poem, excluding the prefatory lines that read ‘L’abbe Desfontaines et le ramoneur, ou le ramoneur et l’abbé / Desfontaines, conte par feu m. de la Faye.’ According to T. D. N. Besterman, ‘despite m. de la Faye being named as the author, the poem ‘ is of course by Voltaire himself’. Furthermore; the poem is a fragment of D1514 that discusses the wedding of Marie Elisabeth Mignot, Voltaire’s younger niece, as well as an influential book by Maupertuis (perhaps La Figure de la Terre, déterminée par les Observations de Messieurs Maupertuis, Clairaut, Camus, Le Monnier & de M. l’Abbé Outhier, accompagnés de M. Celsius) and the faulty edition of Eléments de Newton.

In this letter, Voltaire claims that he has become involved inone of the most ridiculous scandals of the century in the Mémoire de Desfontaines written by Pierre François Guyot Desfontaines. Voltaire mocks Desfontaines’s attempts to portray himself as a modest, quality, and moral man and further critiques Desfontaines’s claim to have friends. Voltaire hides behind the pseudonym ‘Malicourt’ in this letter so that he can insult Desfontaines with greater vehemence.

The first three pages of the letter are missing. Voltaire begins by saying that he intends to send Thieriot two or three poems by Mr Pope, whom he describes as ‘the best poet of England and, at present, of all the world’, in the hopes that Thieriot’s English is good enough to enable him to appreciate the charms of the works. He adds that he views Pope’s ‘the essay upon criticism’ as superior to the poetry of Horace and his Rape of the Lock as above Despreaux Le Lutrin. Voltaire then turns to his own ‘ever cursed fortune’, writing that he came into England at the end of July greatly dissatisfied with his secret voyage into France which proved both unsuccessful and expensive. He returned to England with only some bills of exchange upon a Jew called Medina for the sum of eight or nine thousand French livres but discovered uppon his arrival that Medina was broke. This left Voltaire alone and penniless in London, in the grips of a violent ague that left him too weak to visit the ambassador. He writes that he was helped by a gentleman who gave him accommodation at his country house, adding that the friendship of this man ‘sooths the bitterness’ of his life and makes him love Thieriot more and more. Voltaire claims to have seem Lord and Lady Bolingbroke numerous times and that they offered him money and their house, but that he refused their offers due to their status, instead accepting help from Mr Faulknear.
Voltaire then turns to matters of publishing, stating that he had thought to publish ‘Poor Henry’ at his own expense in London but the loss of his money had prevented him from doing so. He questions if he should attempt to publish via subscriptions by the favour of the court, but notes that he is weary of courts because ‘All that is King, or belongs to a King, frights my republican philosophy, j won’t drink the least draught of slavery in the land of liberty.’
The letter then addresses Voltaire’s correspondence with Desfontaines and his desire to see Thieriot in London, where he hopes to remain. He speaks of the benefits of remaining in England, writing that it is ‘a nation fond of their liberty, learned, witty, despising life and death, a nation of philosophers, not but that there are some fools in England, every country has its madmen. It may be, French folly is pleasanter, than English madness, but by god English wisdom and English Honesty is above yours.’ After discussing England at length, Voltaire writes that he fears Thieriot will take his letter for one of the ‘tedious English books’ Voltaire had advised him not to translate and so instead turns to the lateness of his reply. He blames his correspondent in Calais and asks Thieriot to send all letters henceforth to Bolingbroke’s house in London, asking him also to advise others who would correspond with him to do the same.
Voltaire then discusses his sister. He informs Thieriot that he has written so much about her to correspondents following her death that he had almost forgotten to write of her to Thieriot. He says that he has nothing to tell him about the accident, because Thieriot knows his heart and way of thinking already, but notes that he has wept for her death and wishes to be with her. He muses on her passing philosophically, writing: ‘Life is but a dream full of starts of folly, and of fancied, and true miseries. Death awakens us from this painful dream, and gives us, either a better existence or no existence at all.’

Voltaire talks of ‘l’abbé Desfontaines’ whom Voltaire claims owes him everything. He notes that he saved Desfontaines’ honour and life from Bissêtre and suspended his criminal trial, and that he begged Desfonaines to make it public knowledge that Voltaire had nothing to do with a ‘miserable edition’ that had ‘disfigured’ his work. Instead, Desfontaines published his letter without permission and added to it a number of criticisms. What is crueller, Voltaire writes, is that Mr Rouillé, the owner of the bookshop, has been told that La mort de César is the work of a bad citizen, and that it was published furtively by Voltaire to defy the rules established by the Keeper of Seals. He notes that Asselin’s honesty must lead him to refute such claims, asking him to refute the claims in the newspapers and to write to Mr Rouillé and adding that René Hérault no longer interferes with the bookshop.

Voltaire writes that he does not know if the protectors of l’abbé Desfontaines will prevail against the horror that Paris has for him, or if the Chancellor will take away his privilege. He notes that he did as the recipient advised and has sent him a copy of a letter from Madame de Berniere. Voltaire states that he knows that the recipient often sees people who have the misfortune of dining with Desfontaines and asks that he shows them the letter, warning, however, that it should not be printed. He adds that he does not know of any better response to the horrors that this monster [Desfontaines] vomits and that he is sure that the recipient will make prudent use of the letter to inspire so much aversion for him that they will soon be delivered from a competitor whose satirical leaves are so incompatible with their ‘sage journal’.

The sender presents a poem to Voltaire titled ‘Sur la Traduction des Pseaumes par Monsieur L’abbé Desfontaines. Epigram’.

Voltaire writes that Marville must know what noise some philosophes have made about a philosophical tragedy, begging him to order Desfontaines not to pour his poison on this wound. He adds that François Augustin Paradis de Montcrif, who is currently in charge of publishing Rousseau, will remember that Voltaire is his friend and that he has been attached to the recipient for a long time. He begs Marville to help de Montcrif to remember this.

The manuscript implies that the letter was written in 1735, however Besterman suggests that the date should instead be 1742.