The copyist suggests that Voltaire wrote this poem to the Queen Mother whilst ill in Charlottenburg in 1760. However, this date is inaccurate. Voltaire was not in Charlottenburg in 1760, and the adressee, Sophie-Dorothée de Hanover, died in 1757. If the poem is by Voltaire, and if the copyist has correctly identified the recipient, it must therefore predate 1757.

The poem is introduced with a note reading: ‘M. de Voltaire, malade en 1760 à Charlottenburg envoya ces vers par un page que la reine mère lui avait envoyé pour savoir de ses nouvelles’. This is false as Voltaire was not at Charlottenburg at that time.