VACQUERIE Auguste (1819-1895). Autograph manuscript, Les Mots; 86 pages in-4 on laid paper in quires sewn with a pink cord in a titled hardcover. Beautiful clean manuscript of this play in 3 acts and in verse published posthumously in the Théâtre inédit (Calmann Lévy, 1897) by Vacquerie, poet and playwright, and faithful companion of Victor Hugo. The list of characters testifies to the fantasy of the play: Fiat Lux, the word Égalité, Éloi Requin, L'Entracte, a condemned man, Bonaventure, Homer, Dante, Galileo, Campanella, Socrates, Choeur des Mots, Despotisme, etc. The action opens inside the Universal Dictionary, with a song of the chorus: "We are the words! the essence! / The power!", etc. It ends with the triumph of the Word, resolutely voluntary in the face of the sadness of the human condition: "Never mind, a better day must shine! Let us remove first, without delay, The possible evils to destroy ; And the others, let us compensate them "...