Dives and Lazarus is traditional English folk song listed as Child ballad 56 and number 477 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It is considered a Christmas carol and based on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (also called "Dives and Lazarus" and found in Luke 16:19–16:31). 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 pieces composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Francis James Child collected two variants in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Lucy Broadwood noted in 1893 that the song had a strong presence in Worcestershire and was sung in Warwickshire into the early nineteenth century, suggesting that it had become virtually extinct by the turn of the nineteenth century.^[1] Cecil Sharp nevertheless collected a handful of versions in the 1910s and 20s in Herefordshire and Shropshire, using different tunes.^[2] The only known authentic audio recording of the song 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] Textual references suggest that the ballad, in some form, may date back at least to the 1550s, though the form known today seems to date from the early 19th century.^[5]

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.

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.

In the 1726 book Musick for Allan Ramsay's Collection of Scots Songs by Alexander Stuart, a version of the tune is associated with the song "Gilderoy" (Roud 1486).^[6]

In Popular Music of the Olden Time (1855), William Chappell gives the following information about the melody:

This is the tune of many songs. If the reader should meet any half-a-dozen men perambulating the streets of London together, and singing, the probabilities are great that they sing to this tune. Sometimes the men are dressed like sailors ; at other times they look like workmen out of employment. I recollect hearing the tune at Kilburn, full forty years ago [c. 1815], and have, with tolerable annual regularity, ever since. I regret never having stopped to hear the words.^[7]

Traditional folk songs which have been known to use the "Dives and Lazarus" tune include the English songs "The Two Brothers", "The Unquiet Grave" (Child 78), "The Thresher" (Roud 19) and "The Murder of Maria Marten" (Roud 215), as well as a Welsh song from Gwynedd called "Baledwyr Nefyn".

• The Young Tradition (sung by Royston Wood) on the album The Young Tradition (1965)
• June Tabor on her collaboration with Oysterband, Freedom and Rain (1990)
• Martin Simpson on the album The Bramble Briar (2001) and with Wu Man on the album Music For The Motherless Child (1996)
• The Electrics on their album Reel, Folk'n'Rock'n'Roll (2001)
• Nic Jones on the live albums Unearthed (2001) and Game Set Match (2006)
• Nick Hart on the album Nick Hart Sings 10 English Folk Songs (2022), including video depicting a feast ^[15]

Variant A was published as item 109 in "Dives and Lazarus". The Oxford Book of Ballads, 1910. Bartleby. Retrieved 2006-06-29.