This copy was produced for the Beaumarchais-Kehl edition.

This version of the poem carries the title ‘Sur le poète Roi’.

The letter opens with nineteen lines of verse known as ‘Épître à Monsieur le Président Hénault’. The final seven words of the letter have been added in Voltaire’s hand.

The letter opens with nineteen lines of verse known as ‘Épître à Monsieur le Président Hénault’.

The letter opens with seven lines of verse known as ‘À Monsieur de Chennevières’.

This copy of the letter is limited to the verse, known as ‘Vers sur Monsieur S[ilhouette], contrôleur général’ and a few words of the prose. It is dated 8 August 1759 and is said to have been written from Paris. Other copies of the text, however, give the date as 26 May 1759 and claim to have been written from Les Délices instead.

The poems consists of a quatrain. It was first published by Beuchot in 1833.

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 letter contains a verse section known as ‘À Monsieur de C…, sur son ballet de ‘Misis”.