Dives and Lazarus (ballad)

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The beginning few bars of the ballad

Dives and Lazarus is traditional English folk song listed as Child ballad 56 and considered a Christmas carol. It is based on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (also called "Dives and Lazarus" and found in Luke 16:19–16:31). Francis James Child collected two variants in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads.

The song traditionally used a variety of tunes, but one particular tune, published by Lucy Broadwood in 1893 and used in other traditional songs, inspired many notable works and appeared in several piece composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Synopsis

The rich man Dives or Diverus makes a feast. The poor man Lazarus comes to Dives' door and repeatedly begs 'brother Dives' to give him something to eat and drink. Dives answers that he is not the brother of Lazarus, denies Lazarus food and drink, and sends his servants to whip him and his dogs to bite him. However, the servants are unable to whip Lazarus, and the dogs "lick his sores away" instead of biting him.

As both men die, angels carry Lazarus to heaven, and serpents drag Dives to hell. In one version Dives asks Lazarus (who is apparently unable to help him) for a drop of water, and complains about his eternal punishment.

As it fell out upon a day, Rich Dives he made a feast, And he invited all his friends, And gentry of the best.

...Then Lazarus laid him down and down, And down at Dives' door : ' Some meat, come drink, brother Dives, Bestow upon the poor.

The story contains some miraculous elements, and has its emphasis slightly changed from the more traditionally Jewish to a more popularly Western Christian view of the afterlife.

As in other popular renderings of the parable, Dives (Latin for rich or splendid) was considered as a proper name, and the name even was changed to Diverus in variant B.

The Famous Tune

Origin

The famous tune first appeared accompanying "Dives and Lazarus" in the writings of Lucy Broadwood and Alfred James Hipkins, which contain the melody and lyrics and note that they were taken from a traditional singer in 1891 in Westminster, London. England.^[1] Broadwood published the song in English Country Songs (1893) under the name "Lazarus".^[2] The only field recording that uses a tune which resembles the famous one is Peter Kennedy's 1952 recording of Emily Bishop of Bromsberrow Heath, Gloucestershire,^[3] which can be heard online via the British Library Sound Archive.^[4]

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams first used the tune in his arrangement of the hymn tune "Kingsfold" (1906), to which two sets of words are commonly sung: "O sing a song of Bethlehem,"^[5] and "I heard the voice of Jesus". The first verse of the ballad, "As it fell out upon a day," is sung in Vaughan Williams's score for The Dim Little Island. Vaughan Williams claimed to have found the tune himself in the village of Kingsfold, near Horsham in West Sussex.

He quoted the tune in his popular English Folk Song Suite (1923) and later famously used it as the basis of his Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus (1939).

Other Uses of the Tune

The tune is used in numerous other musical works in various regions:^[6]

"The Irish song Star of the County Down" (Ireland)
The traditional Scottish folk song "Gilderoy" (Roud 1486)
The traditional Norfolk folk song "The Murder of Maria Marten" (Roud 215)
The traditional folk song "The Unquiet Grave" (Child 78)
"Baledwyr Nefyn" (Gwynedd, north Wales)
"The Thresher"
"Crooked Jack"
"The Fighting 69th" (United States)
"Dives and Lazarus" (Instr. variation of "Star of the County Down...") - Martin Simpson & Wu Man - album: "Music For The Motherless Child" 1996
The Quaker hymn "When Jesus Walked Upon This Earth" in the Quaker songbook Worship in Song: A Friends Hymnal.
The song "The Year Turns Round Again" in War Horse, with words by John Tams
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints hymn "If You Could Hie to Kolob" (hymn number 284) written by the early member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, W. W. Phelps.
The Seven Joys of Mary arranged by Loreena McKennitt on her album A Midwinter Night's Dream.

Renderings

Variant A was published as item 109. "Dives and Lazarus". The Oxford Book of Ballads, 1910. Bartleby.com. Retrieved 2006-06-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

References

^ "Lazarus (Lucy Broadwood Manuscript Collection LEB/4/76/1)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
^ "Lucy E. Broadwood, J.A. Fuller Maitland: English County Songs". mainlynorfolk.info. Retrieved 2021-01-02.
^ "Dives and Lazarus (Roud Folksong Index S417642)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 2021-01-02.
^ "Emily Bishop, Bromsberrow Heath, Herefordshire 1952 - Peter Kennedy Collection - World and traditional music | British Library - Sounds". sounds.bl.uk. Retrieved 2021-01-02.
^ O Sing a Song of Bethlehem Archived July 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
^ Michael Kennedy, The works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Oxford University Press (London, 1980), p. 278.

External links

Both variants
Words & music to Variant A at the Cyber Hymnal

[1] "Lazarus (Lucy Broadwood Manuscript Collection LEB/4/76/1)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 2021-01-01.

[2] "Lucy E. Broadwood, J.A. Fuller Maitland: English County Songs". mainlynorfolk.info. Retrieved 2021-01-02.

[3] "Dives and Lazarus (Roud Folksong Index S417642)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 2021-01-02.

[4] "Emily Bishop, Bromsberrow Heath, Herefordshire 1952 - Peter Kennedy Collection - World and traditional music | British Library - Sounds". sounds.bl.uk. Retrieved 2021-01-02.

[5] O Sing a Song of Bethlehem Archived July 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine

[6] Michael Kennedy, The works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Oxford University Press (London, 1980), p. 278.

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