Cecil Sharp's Note 91 (1916)

No. 91. Come all you worthy Christian men

Several versions of this moralizing ballad with tunes are printed in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society (volume i, p. 74; volume ii, pp. 115–122). The tune is one of the most common, the most characteristic, and, I would add, the most beautiful of English folk-airs. The version here given is in the Æolian mode, but it is often sung in the major, Dorian, and Mixolydian modes. For other versions of the tune set to different words, see English County Songs (pp. 34, 68, and 102); and Songs of the West (No. 111, 2d ed.). The well-known air “The Miller and the Dee” is a minor and “edited” version of the same tune. Chappell, too, noted down a version of it which he heard sung in the streets of Kilburn in the early years of the last century (Popular Music, p. 748). For an exhaustive note by Miss Broadwood upon the tune and its origin, see the Journal of the Folk-Song Society (volume ii, p. 119).