This is the earliest example of a signed Voltaire letter. Voltaire writes that he has postponed his response by two or three days so that he can tell La Marche about the tragedy that Father Lejay [Gabriel-François Lejay, professor of rhetoric at Louis-le-Grand] has just represented. He writes that a heavy rain caused the show to be divided into two after dinner, which gave the schoolchildren as much pleasure as it did Father Lejay. Voltaire then describes the play, remarking that two monks broke their neckes one after another so skilfully that they seemed to fall over only for the audience’s entertainment, that the nuncio of His Holiness gave them eight days of leave, that Monsieur Theuenart sang, and Fathe Lejay got hoarse, and that Father Porée prayed to God for better weather but at the height of his prayers the sky only gave an abundance of rain. He ends the letter by saying that he desires to see La Marche in Paris but that that is not a possibility, concluding that he cannot write a longer letter because the post office is leaving and forces him to write in haste.