One of the oldest traditional ballads in British poetry, it is thought that "Lord Randall" may have been Randolph, sixth earl of Chester, who was poisoned by his wife in1232.

Randall returns from hunting, and his mother notices that he is apparently not feeling well.  Solicitously, she asks him how where he has been, and then "What did she give you, Lord Randal, my son?"  Unwilling to respond with the truth because of his noble character, Lord Randall repeats his refrain four times.  However, the loving mother notices his increasing weakness and reveals her worst fear that he has been poisoned.  Deathly ill and in the confidence of his mother, Lord Randall admits to the poisoning and reveals his true feelings by changing his refrain of "For I'm wearied wi huntin and fain wad lie down" to

For I'm sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.

Poisoned by his wife--or, at any rate, his love--Lord Randall is made both deathly ill and heartbroken that the woman has such malevolence toward him that she would poison him.  When the mother asks what her dying son is leaving to his brother and sister and herself, he sheds all form of gentility and tells her also that to the woman he is leaving her "hell and fire."