Del Virgilio was delighted with Dante's reply, and more especially with the pastoral humour he had adopted. He flung himself into it with all his heart, hailing his friend as a second Virgil, and was apparently quite satisfied with this response to his suggestion of Latin poetry; at least he lays no further stress on that matter; and he also accepts Dante's decision as to receiving the laurel crown nowhere but in Florence. He speaks with generous indignation of Dante's exile, and devoutly hopes that he may indeed revisit his native stream of Arno, and have his locks decked (in anticipation, apparently, of the ceremony of coronation) by 'Phyllis' self' (that is, as I take it, by Gemma, though others insist that 'Phyllis' must be a pastoral impersonation of Florence). Meanwhile he implores him at least to come and visit him, and assures him that there is no cause for the apprehension he has expressed, and that he may safely visit Bologna.
Apparently Dino Perini had the honour of taking Dante's letter to Del Virgilio, and it was he who brought back the reply. Dante and his friend Fiducio dei Milotti were discussing Del Virgilio's strange affection for Bologna, at the very moment when Dino Perini came hastening back with his answer. He recited the ninety-seven lines (three short of a hundred) of the epistle, and Fiducio, full of apprehension, implored Dante not to desert the place to which his fame was already so closely linked, nor to risk approaching the terrible cave of 'Poly-
