The Peoples Songbag

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31530, 18 November 1967, Page 16

The Peoples Songbag

Johnny Cope

[Specially written for "The Press" by DERRICK ROONEY J Hey, Johnnie Cope, are ye wauking yet? Or are ye sleeping, 1 would wit? Oh, haste ye, get up, for the drums do beat.’ O fye, Cope, rise in the morning. When Prince Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, arrived in Scotland in 1745 to claim his inheritance he had little to offer except his charm; but on August 19 he raised his standard at Glenfinnan. on September 18 he entered Edinburgh, and on September 22 he won his famous victory over Sir John Cope and his army at Preston. Now, Johnnie, be as good as your word. And let us try baith fire and sword. And dinna flee like a frightened bird. That's chas’d frae its nest i’ the morning. Says the ballad written after the occasion, still one of the most splendid and rousing Scottish ballads. Cope and his men. surrounded and. as they thought, protected by marshes, had camped at Prestonpans: but the High-

landers were guided through the marshes in the early hours, fell upon the sleeping men, and won the battle in 10 minutes. Cope escaped to take the news of his own defeat to Berwick.

Says the Berwickers unto Sir John, “O ichat’s become of all your men!" "In faith," says he, "I dinna ken, I left them a’ this morning."

I Cope’s humiliation notwithstanding, the news of his defeat started a surge of patriotism in England. The performers in the London play-houses, forerunners of the music halls and at that time the prime repository of popular music, were among the first to get in the act. At both Drury Lane and Covent Garden the performers lined up at the end of the show and began the first verse of an old anthem called “God Save the King.” This, we are told, was how the National Anthem came into general use. The authorship of the words has not been satisfactorily traced, although the ; phrase “God save the King” :is traditional in the Coronai tion ceremony—its origin is in the Old Testament, when Saul was shown to the people —and it occurs in the “Agincourt Carol” of the 1400 s. The tune, too. is of no attributable authorship, although there have been many l claimants, including Henry i Purcell’s widow. Happily there is ho such obscurity about the origin of ' “Johnnie Cope.” The verses iand chorus quoted above are from James Johnson’s “Scots : Musical Museum,” printed in i Edinburgh in several volumes between 1787 and 1792; this version was from a sheet song, printed for A. Magowan. music-seller in Glasgow, and was revised by Robert Burns. The original song, printed in the notes to a later edition of the' museum, was written by a Mr Skirven, a farmer at Haddington, who made a specialty of composing satirical ballads on the ScotItish victory at Preston; he I was the author also of the well-known ballad “Tranent I Muir,” which, like “Johnnie ! Cope,” chides the English for | their lack of fight. Cope, by I the way. was tried by courtI martial for his conduct at Preston, and acquitted.