Status: Annotated
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Official approval of the MS has been recorded on p.107 in a note reading: ‘Lu et aprouvé les changemens. A Paris le 8 juin 1779. Suard. Vue l’aprobation, Permis de representer et d’imprimer ce 9 juin 1779. Lenoir.’
The MS consists of five fascicules bound together and was submitted to the censor, Crébillon by the comédiens in 1761. His official approval is noted on the verso of the final leaf: ‘Jay lu par ordre de Monsieur le Lieutenant Général de Police l’Ecueil du Sage et je crois que l’on peut en permettre la représentation. Ce 26 9bre 1761. Crébillon. Vû L’aprobation Permis de representer ce 28 9bre 1761. de Sartine.’
The copy begins at l.244 of the text and runs to l.276.
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.
Voltaire has signed the verse.
It is likely that the poem formed part of a letter to Frederick II of Prussia.
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.