Contemporary copy of verse attributed to Claude Joseph Dorat, chevalier Dorat, dating to c.1768.
Detailed Summary:
The verse is against Voltaire and discusses his age, anger, and fears. The author, said to be Dorat, concludes that they pity Voltaire. The verse was quoted in a letter from Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise Du Deffand [née de Vichy] to Horace Walpole dated 15 December 1768.
A second, eighteenth-century hand has added a note to the upper right-hand corner of f.1r reading: ‘donné par M. G.’. A third, later hand has added a pencil not to the op of the same reading: ‘recueil 3. 192’. There is a minor correction to the end of l.5 of f.1r in the form of a crossing out and the addition of corrected text superscript.