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.

This translation differs from another made by José Anastácio da Cunha around the same time, suggesting that Oliveira translated the text himself for this MS copy. This MS forms the 18th of a 34 volume set of copies of plays produced by Oliveira.

The current location of this manuscript is unknown. It was first published by Gaston de Villeneuve-Guibert in Le Portefeuille de madame Dupin (Paris, 1884), p.309-314. Villeneuve-Guibert claimed that the text he published was based on an eight-page autograph manuscript that he had in his possession. The manuscript passed at auction in 1951 and has not re-emerged.

Lekain produced his copy of the role of Zamore when the play began at the Comédie-Française in 1750. Lekain performed the role 51 times between 1751 and 1775. The manuscript offers variants for Act II, l.3, 12, 17, 30, 66, 97, 111, 154, 168, 176, 194, 206, 226, 266, 274, 287, 288; Act III, l.84-85, 114, 247-250; Act IV, l.168-169; Act V, l.75, 162, 171, 202-204, and 256.

The manuscript offers variants of Act IV, l.166a-182 and Act V, l.53-68. It is the only known original manuscript of Alzire to have survived. The variant for Act V is written in the left-hand margin of f.1r in Voltaire’s hand.

The fragment is inscribed ‘Au Roi de Prusse… 174…’ and is numbered ’13’. It represents a truncated version of the text, with the fragment beginning at l.243 of Act IV. This copy also contains several variants:

• Séide’s discovery that he is Zopire’s son at ll.229-231 is phrased differently
• ‘les mortels’ is used instead of ‘les humains’ at l.245
• The end of Scene V is missing
• Phanor makes his entrance immediately after Séide’s attempt to kill himself (ll.247-249), meaning that he appears after Séide discovers his identity. This suggests that another character reveals this information in this version of the play

On the verso side of the fragment, Voltaire has drafted a letter to Frederick II of Prussia dating to 10 July 1740 [D2265 / CMV35110].

This MS copy follows the text of the print edition exactly. It is a clean copy without corrections.