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":-- "_Queen Common-Sense._ My Lord of _Law_, I sent for you this Morning; I have a strange Petition given to me; Two Men, it seems, have lately been at Law For an Estate, which both of them have lost, And their Attorneys now divide between them. _Law._ Madam, these things will happen in the Law. _Q. C. S._ Will they, my Lord? then better we had none: But I have also heard a sweet Bird sing, That Men, unable to discharge their Debts At a short Warning, being sued for them, Have, with both Power and Will their Debts to pay Lain all their Lives in Prison for their Costs. _Law._ That may perhaps be some poor Person's Case, Too mean to entertain your Royal Ear. _Q. C. S._ My Lord, while I am Queen I shall not think One Man too mean, or poor, to be redress'd; Moreover, Lord, I am inform'd your Laws Are grown so large, and daily yet encrease, That the great Age of old _Methusalem_ Would scarce suffice to read your Statutes out." There is also much more than merely transitory satire in the speech of "Firebrand" to the Queen:--