Johnnie Cope (Adam Skirving)
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- (Posted 2023-12-12) CPDL #78151:
- Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-12-12). Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 794 kB Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes:
General Information
Title: Johnnie Cope
Composer: Adam Skirving
Arranger: Edward Sweeting
Lyricist: Adam Skirving
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong
Language: Lowland Scots
Instruments: A cappella
First published: 1921 Novello and Co.
Description: The song was written by Adam Skirving (1719-1803) and gives an account of the Battle of Prestonpans from the Jacobite point of view. The battle was a decisive victory for the Jacobites during the Second Jacobite uprising, a series of rebellions in Great Britain between 1688 and 1746. They were attempts to return James VII of Scotland and II of England (or his descendants of the House of Stuart) to the throne of Great Britain after they had been deposed by Parliament. Sir John Cope was the commander of the government troops, and was defeated in a dawn attack by the Jacobites. The song includes several apocryphal incidents, including challenges conveyed by letters between Cope and his rival Bonnie Prince Charlie, as well as exaggerated accounts of Cope’s cowardice. It includes an account of him being the messenger of his own defeat, fleeing from the battle all the way back to Berwick, which is unlikely. The tune has become fixed in British culture. It is the regulation pipe call for Réveillé in Highland Regiments of the British Army and also the Scots Guards Regiment, in which John Cope served between 1710 and 1712.
External websites:
Original text and translations
Lowland Scots text
Cope sent a letter frae Dunbar:
O Charlie, meet me, if ye daur,
And I’ll learn ye the art of war,
Gin ye’ll meet me in the morning.
Hey, Johnnie Cope, are ye waukin’ yet?
Or are your drums a-beatin’ yet?
If ye were waukin’, I wad wait
Tae gang tae the couls i’ the morning.
When Charlie looked the letter upon,
He drew his sword the scabbard from:
Come, follow me, my merry men,
And we’ll meet Cope i’ the morning.
When Johnnie Cope he heard o’ this,
He thocht it wadna be amiss
To hae a horse in readiness
To flee awa’ i’ the morning.
Fye, Johnnie, now get up and rin,
The Highland bag-pipes mak’ a din;
It’s best tae sleep in a hale skin,
For ‘twill be a bluidy morning.
When Johnnie Cope to Berwick cam’,
They speer’d at him, “Where’s a’ your men?”
“The deil confound me, gin I ken,
For I left them a’ i’ the morning?”