British Versions: 8G. Madam I Have Gold and Silver (Folk Plays)
[Two stanzas of 8. Madam I Have Come to Court You (hereafter "Madam") became part of the British folk plays of the East Midlands (specifically Lincolnshire) by the mid-1800s. The type of play, known as The Recruiting Sergeant play, is part of the "wooing plays" formerly known as "mummers" or "guiser (disguiser) plays which were "revels" celebrated during the holiday season. Known also as "Plough plays" they began to be performed on Plough Monday[1] (the first Monday after January 6, known as "old Christmas") by rural acting groups called Plough Jacks or Plough Jags. This brief study does not cover the enormous body of work concerning the history and texts of all British folk plays and only deals with the plays with stanzas of "Madam." For more information about the British Folk plays see: Main headnotes.
Stanzas 4 and 5 of the "Madam" print versions are the fundamental stanzas found in some of the later folk plays. Here are the two stanzas from the 1776 broadside titled "A New Song":
"Madam I've got gold and treasure,
Madam I've got house and land
Madam I've got rings and jewels,
And all will be at your command."
What care I for gold and treasure,
What care I for house and land
What care I for rings and jewels,
If I had but a handsome man."
The line "Madam I've got gold and treasure," is also found as "Madam I've got gold and silver," which is how the line commonly appears in the folk plays.
An additional stanza from Madam was collected by Rudkin from a Linclonshire 1934 version sung by Carlton Le Mooreland Ploughboys-- the Fool sings:
A handsome man will not maintain you;
Beauty, it will fade away,
Like a rose that blooms in summer,
And in winter will decay.
The earliest version in the UK I've found so far is a Lincolnshire version collected by Carpenter from E. Andrew-Elsham-Brigg that dates to circa 1880 although it was collected about 1934:
[LADY]: I am a lady bright and fair,
Me fortunes is me charms,
I was thrown away so scornfully
All from me lover's arms.
He promised for to marry me,
Which you will understand,
He listed for a soldier
And went to some foreign land.
SERGEANT: Madam, I've got gold and silver,
Madam, I've got house and land,
Madam, I've got worlds of treasure,
They are all at thy command (All will be at thy command)
LADY: What care I for thee gold or silver,
What care I for thee house and land,
What care I for thee worldly riches,
All I want is a nice young man.
FOOL: That's me, my dear!
LADY: Old man you are deceitful
As any of the rest.
But I shall have the young man
Which I do love the best.
This text is from James Madison Carpenter and the Mummers' Play by Steve Roud and Paul Smith in Folk Music Journal, Vol. 7, No. 4, (Special Issue on the James Madison Carpenter Collection (1998), pp. 496-513). The typed text appeared in the Carpenter Collection with handwritten additions and corrections. This information was provided:
E. Andrew-Elsham-Brigg-71 years old. Learned fifty-five years ago, learned from older hands, in old shed. Went bit before Christmas time. Fool had long hat, two feet long, trimmed with paper, rags etc. Wore smock shirts, different colored stockings, face red and black etc. Soldier dressed like a soldier-Indian king, black with white smock and belt round him, wooden pistol and wooden sword, red cap.
A number of the entire folk plays will appear attached to the Records & Info page. Excerpts with the text from Madam will appear in the British & and Other Versions page and US & Canada Version page.
The "gold and silver" stanzas sung by the Recruiting Sergeant and Lady Bright characters are probably derived from the two print versions of "Madam" from the 1760s and 1770s. There is no indication that "Madam" was part of the folk plays before the 1760s and no scrips of any of the plays were published until later in the 1700s. Both the children's songs of the late 1800s (see: 8C. On the Mountain Stands a Lady) and the British folk plays have "nice young man" instead of "handsome man" found in the print versions from the 1700s.
R. Matteson 2017]
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Footnotes:
1. According to Millington (Mystery History: The Origins of British Mummers' Plays): "By the latter part of the Nineteenth Century the Recruiting Sergeant plays had evolved into a fairly standard form and transferred themselves from Christmas to Plough Monday. Hence they are also termed Plough Plays."
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CONTENTS:
Plough Jags- Elsham-Brigg (Linc) 1880 Carpenter
Brattleby, Lincolnshire Mummers' Play- (Linc) 1894
Kirmington Plough-Jags Play- (Linc) pre-1916 Tiddy
Carlton-Le-Moorland Ploughboys- (Linc) 1934 Rudkin
Barrow-on-Humber Plough Play (Linc) 1951 Barley
Coleby Plough-Jag- M.C. Ogg (Linc) 1974