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.

There are two items in this assemble that are copied in an unknown hand. The first is vers libertine (44r-44v), and the second is an extract from a Manuscrit Philosophique Clandestin (97r-102r), which Voltaire has titled Extraits de Maillet. T.D. Betserman indicates that this is in the hand of Colligny (p.420), but this is mistaken. Below is the beginning of this text:

Si on prouve par des anachronismes des plus marqués que Moïse n’a point écrit la Genèse, si l’on démontre qu’il n’est point non plus l’auteur de l’Exode, du Lévitique, des Nombres, du Deutéronome, il est sûr qu’on doit moins de foi à des histoires dont on n’a pas d’auteur contemporain. Voilà l’objet et l’idée de la critique de Spinosa, etc.

The letter reflects on the suicide of Mr. Martignac and features his suicide note. The manuscript is written in Wagnière’s hand, but the titular phrase ‘Anecdote étrange’ is in Voltaire’s handwriting.

The second leaf of this copy is in a different hand to the rest of the MS, suggesting that it may have been taken from another MS copy. The list of ‘Acteurs’ has been annotated by Lekain with the names of the actors who took part in the later 1765 production of the play. There are also several variants throughout the MS that demonstrate the play’s development between 1734 and 1765, with their place within the text being clearly marked. It is likely that the copy was used by the Comédie-Française and its actors, including Lekain.

It is likely that this MS is the copy that Decroix had made from the Longchamp manuscript in June 1787. There are corrections and annotations throughout. The MS appears to have been used by Lequien or Beuchot for their editions of Voltaire’s works.

The text has been endorsed by Pierre Pitois, marquis de Quincy, as being the true manuscript from which the work (attributed to Voltaire) was printed. It is heavily corrected throughout.