Book II of Milton’s Paradise Lost sees the gatekeeper of Hell, named Sin, revealing to Satan that she is his daughter, and that their incestuous relationship resulted in their offspring, Death. When she finishes this revelation, Milton writes, “the subtle Fiend his lore / Soon learned, now milder, and thus answered smooth…”, promising to set her and all the other devils free from their “dark and dismal house of pain”.
‘Lore’, in this context, means ‘education’, ‘teaching’, or ‘lesson’, its original (often
