328 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»* S. X. Oct. 27. '60. 



the Preface the production of E. Cooper, has been 

 erroneously ascribed as the compilation of W. 

 Oldys. Very little appears to be known of this 

 literary lady, who would seem to have been a per- 

 sonal friend of Oldys, and might have derived 

 some assistance from him, as she is often alluded 

 to in his Diary as borrowing his books. In this 

 said Diary she is called Mrs. Eliza Cooper ; in 

 Baker's Biographia, Mrs. Elizabeth C, wherein 

 she is mentioned as the widow of one Cooper, an 

 auctioneer, and the authoress of two plays (in 

 addition to the Muses' Library), viz. The Rival 

 Widows, 8vo., 1735, and The Nobleman, 1736 (not 

 printed). 



The Censura Literaria, followed by Nichols's 

 Lit. Anec, baptizes her Mrs. Mary Cooper, book- 

 seller and publisher of Paternoster Row. They 

 all agree in the date of her death, viz. Aug. 5, 

 1761. If this last be correct, it is probable that 

 she was the wife of Thomas Cooper, a bookseller 

 of Paternoster Row, who might also have been an, 

 auctioneer. Perhaps some of your correspondents 

 may be enabled to clear up these discrepancies, 

 and point to some other of her productions. 



Ithubiel, 



WiMJAM OtniswoRTH. — '■ Can any one refer 

 me to biographical particulars of this writer, in 

 addition to those given in Nichols's Literary 

 Anecdotes f He was attached to the abdicated 

 royal family, and was present at the battle of 

 Preston. He died on Sept. 15, 1734. Is anything 

 known of his MS. memoratidum book, noticed by 

 William Oldys ? J. YEOWEi-ii. 



English Tbansi^tiok op Terence. — In the 

 Catalogue of MSS. in the British Museum (Ays- 

 cough's), I find an English translation (No. 

 1145-3.) of "The Phormio" of Terence, having 

 the date 1674, by Humphrey (Runt ? or Rant). 

 Any account of the author will oblige R. Inglis. 



[H. Rant must have been an oddity with a mania for 

 scrawling his nanie in a MS. of which he was probably 

 only the possessor. At the commencement, containing 

 medical recipes, deeply indented with a stylus and 

 yellow ochre, is the inscription " Humphry Rant," with 

 the date MDC.udaiii. strangely reversed. The same 

 occurs before the " Phormio," with a rude representation 

 of a duck. At p. 37. his name, " H. Rant," is signed in 

 ink to some music adapted for the flageolet.] 



How ABB Tou OFF FOB SOAP ? — Having ob- 

 served that the explanations of vernacular English 

 contained in the pages of " N. & Q." often bring 

 to light a meaning and a specialty in familiar and, 

 as some may deem them, trivial sayings, I venture 

 to ask what may be the precise signification and 

 true origin of the inquiry, " How are you oflf for 

 soap?" "All things are trivial to the trivial 



mind ; " but it is a pleasure to think that those 

 who lived before us, though they sometimes em- 

 ployed homely language, did not often talk non- 

 sense. John Saxon. 



[We doubt whether this saying is of very ancient date ; 

 and it now comes into use under so great a variety of cir- 

 cumstances that we find a difficulty in assigning to it any 

 one primary meam'ng, to which may be referred all its 

 present applications. Sometimes, in fact, it seems to be 

 merely a form of inquiry respecting a friend's well-being 

 or health. " Good morning, Fred. How are you off for 

 soap ? " i. e. " Good morning, Fred. How d'ye do ? " or 

 " Good morning, Fred. How are you getting on ? " 



A friend informs us that some twenty years ago he 

 heard the phrase on board a British 74 ; and he is in- 

 clined to think that one of its earliest uses, perhaps its 

 origin, may have been nautical. The ship in question 

 had been lying so long in port that, to use a saying then 

 common in the navy, she was in imminent danger of 

 " grounding on her beef-bones," At length the captain 

 received sailing orders; which agreeable fact he made 

 known to the first lieutenant. The first- lieutenant had 

 his own way of communicating the pleasing intelligence 

 to his brother officers, and waited till dinner-time. Dur- 

 ing dinner, singling out one of them who sat at the other 



end. of the table, he thus addressed him : " Mr. 



happy to take a glass of wine with you. How are you off 

 for soap f " Instantly knives and forks ceased to perform 

 their office, all eyes were directed towards the speaker ; 

 and even to our friend, holding as he did the position of a 

 landsman, it very soon became an obvious fact that the 

 inquiry, ■' How are you off for soap ? " was both intended 

 and taken as an intimation that orders had arrived for the 

 ship to sail. How are you off' for such articles as you will 

 want at sea ? Make your purchases at once. 



But why, in particular, soap? Why not any other 

 article needed on a voyage ? Why not " How are you off 

 for sea-stores " generally ? Without wishing to carry re- 

 finement too far, we would submit that, so far as soap is 

 concerned, the question, to borrow a term from our cor- 

 respondent, had a kind of specially. It is well known 

 that sometimes on a sea voyage fresh water becomes so 

 scarce, that none but salt water can be had for washing 

 and shaving purposes ; and also that with salt water it 

 is only one particular quality of soap that will lather. 

 Hence, on the prospect of a three months' cruise, the ex- 

 pediency of providing such soap ; at least if one wishes to 

 keep a clean chin, and to shave without scarification. 

 And hence, on the arrival.of sailing orders, the seasonable- 

 ness and peculiar import of the inquiry, " How are yon off 

 for soap?"] 



Monument in Sevenoaks Church. — A marble 

 monument, with the following inscription and 

 coats of arms, is fixed against the S.E. wall of the 

 interior of Sevenoaks church. I should be glad 

 to have some farther information about the lady 

 which it commemorates : — 



" Posteritati sacrum 

 et 

 Piae memorise , 

 Dominse Margeriee Gierke ex antiqua Fordorum familia 

 oriundae in paraechia de Wrootham, cujus corpus (spe re- 

 surgendi) sub hoc marmore juxta in sepulcro inhumatur ; 

 quae quidem vivens moriensque fuit conjux dilecta TIiom<B 

 Scott, gen. et stirpis de Congerherst in paraechia de 

 Hawkhurst hujus ejusdem cum priore comitatus, ex qna 

 (liberie 5 susceptis, Thoma, Nicholao, Richardo, Georgio, 

 Edmundo, filiabusque duabus Gracia et Anna) filiorum 



