The letter opens with nineteen lines of verse known as ‘Épître à Monsieur le Président Hénault’. The final seven words of the letter have been added in Voltaire’s hand.

The fragment gives l.16-27 of Act II Scene 2 only.

The poems consists of a quatrain. It was first published by Beuchot in 1833.

The poem would later be included in a letter from Voltaire to Nicolas-Claude Thieriot, written from Les Délices and dated 8 May 1758 [D7728].

The present whereabouts of this MS are unknown.

The letter contains a short poem known as ‘Aux habitants de Lyon’. It begins: ‘Il est vrai que Plutus est au rang de vos dieux.’

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.

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.