Also included with the MS is a copy of ‘Le plaisier et l’Ennui, fable par m. Drobacq.’

This MS appears to be an early copy of the poem, later revised by a second hand to align with the Louvain edition. More than 120 changes have been made to the text throughout.

The MS is bound with three other texts by Voltaire which once formed part of the Boissy d’Anglas album. These texts are:

• (a) a letter in verse to Algarotti and a letter to the comte d’Argental
• (b) Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne
• (c) Bababec et les fakirs / Lettre d’un Turc.

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.

The letter begins with a poem, ‘A monsieur le maréchal duc de Richelieu, à qui le sénat de Gènes avait érigé une statue’. This is written in a secretarial hand.

In a concluding prose section, added in his own hand, Voltaire notes that he imagines the recipient, Maréchal Louis François Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, will be invited to dine with the President in Paris upon his arrival as his glory means that he must lack nothing. Voltaire ends by saying he has just received Louis’ letter.

This copy of the poem is given an alternative title: ‘A Mr le Prince et Mme la Pcesse de Craon qui l’invitaient à venir chez eux.’