Voltaire 1774 · Ferney
Supper, health permitting
20:00 · Conditional start
“& se montre alors pour souper, quand sa santé le lui permet.”
Verbatim excerpt · French original · Paul Claude Moultou
Line breaks and page markers omitted.
And then appears for supper, when his health permits it.
Letter from Ferney, 8 December 1774
Voltaire Society of America · Whitman College transcription from the Besterman correspondence edition
8 December 1774 · opening paragraph
Passage: Same sentence as the work ending at eight
Timing & context
The source explicitly makes attendance conditional on his health. The meal’s duration is unknown.
Moultou describes a late-life routine with changing health. Remaining in bed until noon does not establish when Voltaire woke or whether he was working there.
1774 is the year of Moultou’s letter, which explicitly describes Voltaire’s usual routine. Supper depended on his health.