The title is written in Voltaire’s hand.

The title is written in Voltaire’s hand.

(cf. t. IV, fol. 14)

The phrase ‘concernant le XVIe siècle en France’ is written in Voltaire’s hand.

It is likely that this was a prompt copy used at the Comédie-Française. The play was first performance at the Comédie-Française at the ‘Jeu de Paume de l’Etoile’ on Monday 18 January 1734.

Variant readings are clearly marked throughout.

The copy is a clean one in a regular hand. Alternative readings are provided at the bottom of the page, but it is not clear which part of the text they relate to. There are several minor errors, when compared to the print edition, throughout.

This MS copy represents the final entry in a bound volume, falling after Samson and Eriphyle. The volume is collectively titled ‘Supplément aux œuvres de theatre de M. De Voltaire’ and forms part of the d’Argenson collection. The MS appears to be related to those sent by Lacombe to Voltaire in 1775, and may be their source.

The second leaf of this copy is in a different hand to the rest of the MS, suggesting that it may have been taken from another MS copy. The list of ‘Acteurs’ has been annotated by Lekain with the names of the actors who took part in the later 1765 production of the play. There are also several variants throughout the MS that demonstrate the play’s development between 1734 and 1765, with their place within the text being clearly marked. It is likely that the copy was used by the Comédie-Française and its actors, including Lekain.

Lekain has copied out the part of Vendôme and includes cues from the speeches of other actors. The text closely resembles the 1765 edition that Lekain himself played a key role in and it is likely that the manuscript copy was made from an edition produced under Voltaire’s control, such as the Nouveaux mélanges or the aforementioned edition.

This copy of the “fourth” London edition of 1728 includes a dedication in Voltaire’s hand that is dated 25 April 1728. In the dedication, Voltaire presents the edition to Queen Caroline, adding that he waited until the fourth edition was ready to send a copy of the work to the Queen as it was ‘plus correcte et plus épurée’. Despite his assertions in this dedication, Voltaire had written ten days earlier to present the Queen with a first edition copy of the work.

Voltaire’s dedication is, unusually, bound at the back of the volume and is upside down.