Léon HENNIQUE. Autograph manuscript, Reines de Rois, [1909]; 201pages small in-4 (19.5x15.5cm), written on the front, in sheets, in a folder signed with strong blue paper. Complete manuscript of this historical drama. This historical drama in 5 acts and 6 tableaux was staged by André Antoine at the Odéon, under the title Jarnac, on November 17, 1909, with Alexandre Vargas as Jarnac, Maxime Desjardins as François Ier and Saturnin Fabre as Caize. Hennique's collaborator was Johannès Gravier. The play was published by L'Illustration in 1909, then by Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue in 1916. The manuscript, carefully cleaned up by Hennique alone in brown ink, contains a few erasures and corrections. It is paginated by acts, each in a folder: I (58p.), II (41), III (31), IV (46), V in two tables (15 and 10p.). At the head, the list of "Characters", beginning with François Ier, and the indication: "en France 1546-1547". The last painting features the famous duel between Jarnac and La Châtaigneraie, who, wounded before dying, apostrophizes Diane de Poitiers and Mme d'Étampes: "Oh! Reines de Rois, goules, vipers, what you oblige me to hear!".