Voltaire is replying to a correspondent, casting doubt on the veracity of an anecdote that this person has shared with him concerning an Englishman who wanted his son dead. Voltaire assures the recipient that he remembers his presence in Berg[en] op Zoom. The signature appears to be autograph.

The letter concerns Voltaire’s death on 30 May 1778 and discusses the difficulties his servants faced in finding a burial place for him after they removed his body from Paris.

Voltaire encourages the recipient to read a letter from Turgot, Contrôleur général des Finances to Louis XVI concerning the 30,000 pounds that had been set as the price for the Pays de Gex’s future immunity from taxation. Voltaire notes that Turgot’s letter shows he fought bitterly for this figure to be reduced and expresses his annoyance that the recipient did not keep him informed of their own negotiations over this price, negotiations Voltaire felt had jeopardised his own attempts to reduce the sum. He then turns to salt, a commodity that had been proposed as an alternative to taxation, stating that this idea had never come to fruition.

The MS consists of five fascicules bound together and was submitted to the censor, Crébillon by the comédiens in 1761. His official approval is noted on the verso of the final leaf: ‘Jay lu par ordre de Monsieur le Lieutenant Général de Police l’Ecueil du Sage et je crois que l’on peut en permettre la représentation. Ce 26 9bre 1761. Crébillon. Vû L’aprobation Permis de representer ce 28 9bre 1761. de Sartine.’

The poem would later be included in a letter from Voltaire to Nicolas-Claude Thieriot, written from Les Délices and dated 8 May 1758 [D7728].

The text of this MS is close to the clandestine editions of the text produced in 1784. Marginal notes restore the text to the original version (CMV37555). The MS is part of a bound collection known to have been used by the Kehl editors.

This MS contains copies of three Italian sonetti: one from Giovanni Lami (1697-1770) who writes against Voltaire, one titled ‘Al re di prussia’, and one by Pietro Metastasio (1698-1792).