oaning his infidelity with the "lady at the window" after the death of Beatrice. On the literal level, Dante has been unfaithful to Beatrice the woman in writing love poetry to this new lady at the end of the Vita Nuova, but the event has allegorical implications as well. In the Convivio, Dante had himself interpreted this other woman as Lady Philosophy who had won his heart away from the revealed truth that Beatrice in part represents. Dante's descent into hell and climb back to Eden are framed by two different allegorical depictions of the same apostasy. Dante's sudden awareness of being lost in the woods involved a recognition that philosophy alone, without divine illumination or sacred wisdom or theology (all of which Beatrice, according to some, represents), cannot answer the most basic of human questions. Now, at the end of the climb, that same episode of philosophical philandering is spoken of as a sexual affair. In the very last canto of Purgatorio, Dante's purification is complete. He is absolved of sin, freed from vice, and in Lethe is washed clean of the memory of former sinfulness. When Beatrice mentions his former estrangement and Dante claims to have no recollection of ever having been estranged from her, Beatrice triumphantly concludes that his amnesia is proof positive that in following his former philosophical school of thought Dante was indeed sinful (Purg. 33. 85-102.). If it had not been sinful, it would not have been forgotten in the waters of Lethe. The final step is to drink from the waters of Euno, thereby intensifying the memory of former virtuous acts. At this point, Dante concludes the Purgatorio: "I came forth from the holy waves, renovated even as new trees renewed with new foliage, pure and ready to rise to the stars." ...
