Seven Long Years- Maria McCauley (NC) c.1887 Brown
[From: Brown Collection 3, 1952 music in Brown 5. Composite version sung by an African American woman, presumed to be an ex-slave. the title and stanzas 4 and 6 are from the Seven Long Years/Broken Token/Lover's Return family-- the rest are "Madam."
R. Matteson 2017]
12. Madam, I Have Gold and Silver
Here a very familiar courting dialogue is turned unexpectedly in the last stanza into a returned-disguised-lover story. Up to the last stanza our text is very close to one from Sussex given in JFSS IV 297-8. For the more customary form of the song and references to its occurrence in England and America, see BSM 506. and add Indiana (SFLQ in 206).
'Seven Long Years.' Reported by Mrs. R. D. Blacknall of Durham, with the note: "Sung by a Negro servant, Maria McCauley, presumably ex-slave of the Chapel Hill McCauleys. Heard forty-five years ago." Mrs. Daisy Jones Couch of Durham remembered the first stanza only.
1. 'O madam, I have gold and silver,
O madam, I have both house and land.
O madam, I have this world of treasure
And you may use them at your command.'
2. 'Oh, what care I for your gold and silver?
Oh, what care I for your house and land.'
Oh, what care I for your world of treasure
When all I want is a handsome man?'
3. 'O madam, don't place your love on beauty,
For beauty is a thing that will decay;
Just like a rose, pulled soon in the morning.
That before noon will fade away.'
4. 'Oh, my true love's gone over the ocean;
Oh, seven long years he's been gone from me.
But seven more I'll wait for him.
If his dear face I ever shall see.'
5. 'The ripest fruit soonest is rotten;
The hardest love soonest is cold.
That young man's love is soon forgotten,
So, my dear miss, don't speak so bold!'
6. That look, that voice were so familiar
Her lovely face turned pale as clay;
She spied the ring upon his finger —
And on the ground she swooned away.