Thing brought upon the Stage? I intend to bring ours to the Dignity of
the _French_ Stage; and I have _Horace's_ Advice of my Side; we have
many Things both said and done in our Comedies, which might be better
perform'd behind the Scenes: The _French_, you know, banish all Cruelty
from their Stage; and I don't see why we should bring on a Lady in ours,
practising all manner of Cruelty upon her Lover: beside, Sir, we do not
only produce it, but encourage it; for I could name you some Comedies,
if I would, where a Woman is brought in for four Acts together, behaving
to a worthy Man in a Manner for which she almost deserves to be hang'd;
and in the Fifth, forsooth, she is rewarded with him for a Husband: Now,
Sir, as I know this hits some Tastes, and am willing to oblige all, I
have given every Lady a Latitude of thinking mine has behaved in
whatever Manner she would have her."

The part of Lord Place in the _Election_, after the first few nights,
was taken by Cibber's daughter, the notorious Mrs. Charlotte Charke,
whose extraordinary Memoirs are among the curiosities of eighteenth-
century literature, and whose experiences were as varied as those of any
character in fiction. She does not seem to have acted in the _Life and
Death of Common-Sense_, the rehearsal of which followed that of the
_Election_. This is a burlesque of the _Tom Thumb_ type, much of which
is written in vigorous blank verse. Queen Common-Sense is conspired
against by Firebrand, Priest of the Sun, by Law, and by Physic. Law is
incensed because she has endeavoured to make his piebald jargon
intelligible; Physic because she has preferred Water Gruel to all his
drugs; and Firebrand because she would restrain the power of Priests.
Some of the strokes must have gone home to those receptive hearers who,
as one contemporary account informs us, "were dull enough not only to
think they contain'd Wit and Humour, but Truth also":--