COPE, CHARLES WEST, a painter, born at Leeds; his pictures have for subjects historical or dramatic scenes, and were very numerous; executed the frescoes that adorn the Peers’ corridor at Westminster; was professor of Painting to the Royal Academy (1811-1890).

COPE, SIR JOHN, a British general; was in command at Prestonpans, and defeated by the Pretender there in 1745, in connection with which his name is remembered in Scotland as not having been ready when the Highlanders attacked him, by the song “Heigh!  Johnnie Cowp, are ye wauken yet?” d. 1760.

COPENHAGEN (380), the capital of Denmark, and the only large town in it; lies low, and is built partly on the island of Seeland and partly on the island of Amager, the channel between which forms a commodious harbour; is a thriving place of manufacture and of trade, as its name “Merchants’ Haven” implies; has also a university, an arsenal, and numerous public buildings.

COPERNICUS, NICOLAS, founder of modern astronomy, born at Thorn, in Poland, and educated at Cracow and Bologna; became canon of Frauenburg, on the Frisches Haff; studied medicine; was doctor to a wealthy uncle, with whom he lived, and became his heir when he died; his chief interest lay in the heavenly bodies, and his demonstrations regarding their movements, which yet he deferred publishing till he was near his end; and indeed it was only when he was unconscious and dying that the first printed copy of the work was put into his hands; it was entitled “De Orbium Revolutionibus,” and was written in proof of the great first principle of astronomy, that the sun is the centre of the solar system, and that the earth and planets circle round it; the work was dedicated to Pope Paul III., and was received with favour by the Catholic Church, though, strange to say, it was denounced by Luther and Melanchthon as contrary to the Scriptures of truth (1473-1543).

COPIAPO, a river, a village, a city, and a district in Chile.

COPLEY, JOHN SINGLETON, portrait and historical painter, born in Boston, U.S.; painted Washington’s portrait at the age of eighteen; came to England in 1776, having previously sent over for exhibition sundry of his works; painted portraits of the king and the queen; began the historical works on which his fame chiefly rests, the most widely known perhaps of which is the “Death of Chatham,” now in the National Gallery (1737-1815).

COPPEE, FRANCOIS, a poet, born in Paris; has produced several volumes of poetry, excellent dramas in verse, and tales in prose; his poetry is the poetry of humble life, and “has given poetic pleasure,” as Professor Saintsbury says, “to many who are not capable of receiving it otherwise, while he has never sought to give that pleasure by unworthy means”; b. 1842.

COPPER CAPTAIN, a Brummagem captain; the name given to Percy in Beaumont and Fletcher’s play, “Rule a Wife and Have a Wife.”

COPPER NOSE, name given to Oliver Cromwell, from a brownish tinge on his nose.