A retained draft, headed "Au Pce royal de prusse." Also headed "17e."
Voltaire lived at the Château de Cirey, the home of Gabrielle Emilie de Breteuil, Marquise du Chatelet, from 1734-1749.
Part of a large collection of letters from Voltaire to Frederick the Great. Letters have been cataloged individually; see collection-level record for more information.
Telling him about his illness and that of [Graf Hermann Karl von] Keyserling[k]; sending his third epistle on happiness [the third Discours sur l'homme] whose subject is envy; comparing the exchange of verses between Frederick and Voltaire to Hesiod's description of the relationship between the earth and the sky; telling him about his wish to write a tragedy [Mérope]; saying that French theater is too gallant; discussing, at great length, metaphysics, the freedom of man and God.