US Versions: 8G. Madam I Have Gold and Silver
[A folk play[1] with stanzas of "Madam, I Have Come to Court You" was discovered in Craney Creek, Kentucky about 1930 by Marie Campbell. The informants, Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe, learned the play from older family members. The folk play that Mary and Joe knew in 1930 had not been performed for seventy years (known by c.1860). According to Campbell, "Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe said they kept the play from "fading out of our minds pineblank by saying it over to each other every little spell." Here is the text that is related to Madam from Aunt Mary's "Plough Monday Play":
Lady: In comes I, a lady fair,
My fortune in my charms.
It's true I've turned away
Out of my true-love's arms.
Oh, he did marry me,
As all do understand,
And then he listed for a soldier
In a far and distant land.
Soldier: Madam, I've got gold and silver,
Madam, I've got house and land,
Madam, I've got golden treasure,
All at your command.
Lady: What care I for your gold and silver?
What care I for your house and land?
What care I for your golden treasure?
All I want is a nice young man.
Tom: Here am I all brisk and spry,
And I'm hungry as well as dry.
Old Jane: Here am I, Old Jane,
With my neck as long as a crane.
Once I wore a wig behind
And a wig before,
Now I'm a poor widow.
Tom: I'm the nice young man you want, miss.
Soldier: Madam, I've got gold and silver,
Madam, I've got house and land,
Madam, I've got golden treasure,
All at your command.
This text compares closely to the East Midland text from Lincolnshire. It was brought to Kentucky from an ancestor of Aunt Mary's grandpap which dates the text to the early 1800s since Mary knew the text since about 1860 and it took some time to get to the Kentucky mountains.
This is apparently the only extant survival in North America. For more information see Main Headnotes.
R. Matteson 2017]
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Footnotes:
1. This is the Recruiting Sergeant type play that was also found in the East Midlands (Lincolnshire) in the 1800s.
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CONTENTS:
1) "Plough Monday Play" recreated from tradition by Uncle Joe and Aunt Mary of Craney Creek, Kentucky about 1930. Collected by by Marie Campbell and published in JAF, 1938. See excerpt with "Madam" stanzas on this page.