The play was first performed at the Comédie-Française on 12 January 1750. Lekain played the role of Oreste 17 times between 1761 and 1777.

Rome sauvée was first performed at the Comédie-Française on 24 February 1752. Lekain played the role of Cicéron twice between 1761 and 1762. In eleven other productions of the same play, he played Catilina instead.

This copy is not the performance text. It varies from first editions of the play, and with Lekain’s actor’s copy of the role of Catilina (CMV37509). The play was first performed at the Comédie-Française at the Jeu de Paume de l’Etoile on Thursday 24 February 1752.

Brutus was first performed at the Comédie-Française on 11 December 1730. Lekain first took on the role of Titus on 14 September 1750. He would perform the role 20 times between 1753 and 1770.

The play was first perfomred at the Comédie-Française on 24 February 1752. Lekain would act in the play 11 times. Between 1761 and 1762, he played the role of Cicero twice.

The copy is found within a collection of female roles. The roles pertain to French performances given at the Stuttgarter Hofttheatre between 1758 and 1767.

This MS is a copy of Acts One and Two only. It is probable that the princess drew parallels between Lusignan’s fate and her own captivity. After her liberation, engraved words etched into the wallpaper of her antechamber at the prison were found. These read: ‘je désire Zaïre, Alzire, Amenaïde’.

An account of the Princess writing this manuscript survives. Alcide de Beauchesne noted that the guardian of the Temple prison, Gomin, found the Pricess with a copy of Zaire the day after the death of the Dauphin. He writes: ‘elle écrivait, elle avait un livre ouvert sous les yeux ; ce livre c’était un volume du théâtre de Voltaire, et ce qu’elle copiait, c’était la tragédie de Zaïre. Je possède les deux premiers actes de cette tragédie écrits, sous les verrous du Temple, de la main de la jeune Marie-Thérèse’. A letter from Gomin’s widow, Jeanne Madeleine Antoinette Lafontaine, to Alcide de Beauchesne was sold alongside this MS copy of Zaïre in which she bequeaths him several manuscripts including this one.

This MS played a part in the production of the edition of Mérope published by Prault fils in 1758. The play was first performed at the Comédie-Française on Wednesday 20 February 1743 at the Jeu de Paume de l’Etoile.

Voltaire begins by saying that he is sending an addition for his Sophonisbe, which he felt was too short. He asks the d’Argental’s to send it the Lekain. Voltaire then discusses briefly war and peace before asking for details on the movements of de Mairet and the duc de Duras. The letter is followed by an extract, in verse, concerning Scipio.