This is the earliest example of a signed Voltaire letter. Voltaire writes that he has postponed his response by two or three days so that he can tell La Marche about the tragedy that Father Lejay [Gabriel-François Lejay, professor of rhetoric at Louis-le-Grand] has just represented. He writes that a heavy rain caused the show to be divided into two after dinner, which gave the schoolchildren as much pleasure as it did Father Lejay. Voltaire then describes the play, remarking that two monks broke their neckes one after another so skilfully that they seemed to fall over only for the audience’s entertainment, that the nuncio of His Holiness gave them eight days of leave, that Monsieur Theuenart sang, and Fathe Lejay got hoarse, and that Father Porée prayed to God for better weather but at the height of his prayers the sky only gave an abundance of rain. He ends the letter by saying that he desires to see La Marche in Paris but that that is not a possibility, concluding that he cannot write a longer letter because the post office is leaving and forces him to write in haste.

The ode describes Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary. In the manuscript, it is given the alternative title of: ‘Ode sur les affaires du temps faitte le 30 Juin de lannée 1742’ / Ode on the affairs of the time written on 30 June 1742. In the accompanying letter, written on the back of the ode, Voltaire describes the poem as a ‘citizen’s ode’, adding that is could appear following a tragedy. Voltaire adds that he is waiting for a response from the recipient, noting that the tragedy has also been printed in Holland, but that it would be more successful in England than elsewhere if it were printed with a preface in the recipient’s style. He ends by asking de Missy to write to him at Fauxbourg St Honoré, and notes that this package will not reach de Missy as soon as he would like as the post has already left and the package will have to wait four more days.