Joshua Sylvester, “Dives and Lazarus,” A Garland of Christmas Carols (London: John Camden Hotten, 1861), pp. William Hone, “Christmas carols,” Every-Day Book, vol.

William Hone, Ancient Mysteries Described (London: William Hone, 1823), pp. Prideaux, “Ballads in Beaumont and Fletcher’s ‘Monsieur Thomas,’” Notes and Queries, ser. John Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas: A Comedy (London: Thomas Harper, 1639): see also W.F. Sharp, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Come all ye faithful Christians,” Journal of the Folk Song Society, vol. Foss, Ralph Vaughan Williams (London: 1950). Ralph Vaughan Williams, “A Musical Autobiography,” National Music and Other Essays (Oxford: University Press, 1972), p. 75–76: Įdward Arber, A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554–1640, vol. 14).Įdward Arber, A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554–1640, vol. Booker at the Wheatsheaf, Kingsfold, Sussex, Dec. Here, as before with Wagner, I had that sense of recognition-“here’s something which I have known all my life-only I didn’t know it!”Īs Ralph Vaughan Williams became a folk song collector himself, he transcribed a variant of this tune, associated with the words “Maria Martin,” for the Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol. This sense came upon me more strongly in 1893 when I first discovered “Dives and Lazarus” in English County Songs. I remember clearly my reaction to the tune of the “Cherry Tree Carol,” which was more than simple admiration for a fine tune, though I did not then naturally realize the implications involved in that sense of intimacy. I must have made my first contact with English folk-songs when I was a boy in the eighties, through Stainer and Bramley’s Christmas Carols New and Old. In his essay “A Musical Autobiography,” he recalled coming across the tune for the first time: Nonetheless, the questionable pairing of the LAZARUS tune with “Dives and Lazarus” made a lasting impression on composer and hymnal editor Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958). The confusion seems to have stemmed from a stanza in “Come all you faithful Christians,” reading thus (p. However, in the face of recent collecting, I have now little doubt that the proper words should be those of “Come all you faithful Christians.” Hipkins, in the streets of Westminster and the Earl’s Court neighborhood, but unfortunately without words beyond the title of “Lazarus.” Later enquiries in Westminster having established the fact that many people there knew the tune to have been sung by street beggars “to a carol about the rich man and Lazarus,” I ventured to associate it in English County Songs with the old carol words of “Dives and Lazarus,” which exactly fitted the tune. The beautiful variant called “Lazarus” in English County Songs was noted by the late Mr. 122, Broadwood admitted the association between this tune and “Dives and Lazarus” was an error: 111.Ībout twelve years later, in a more detailed analysis of this tune’s predecessors and variants for the Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol. They believed the tune was closely related to two other folk tunes, “The Thresher” and “Cold blows the wind.” In their notes for the other songs, they felt “The Thresher” especially resembled an old Scottish tune called “Gilderoy’s last farewell,” published as early as 1707 in the third volume of Henry Playford’s Whit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy (London: William Pearson, 1707), p. The editors connected the tune with the text of “Dives and Lazarus” on the basis of “an old woman in Westminster” who said the LAZARUS tune belonged “to a song referring to the same subject.” For the text, they used the version given in Notes and Queries (Fig. In this version, the men with whips are described as “savage” rather than the more common “merry,” and it contains a substitution for sitting on the serpent’s knee, “From whence thou ne’er canst flee,” a reading consistent with several of the broadsides listed above. This version of the text contained only 15 stanzas, missing the response to Dives at the gate (stanza 7). The first appearance of the song in a published collection was in A Good Christmas Box (Dudley: G. Hooper, no date: onlineīod24330 / Douce adds. Taylor, no date: onlineīod19084 / Harding B 7(4) / Monmouth Court, London: J. Many are housed at the Bodleian Library, including:īod6261 / Douce adds. Other broadsheet copies of the song were common.

Lazarus musical