But it seems to be the young shepherd, not the goats, who has to face the hardships of meagre fare. Compare the closing lines of the poem.
33. Daphne, daughter of Peneus, changed to a laurel.
37. Del Virgilio was the only professor of literature in Bologna, and even he had a hard fight with poverty, while the professors of law grew rich.
49. Nether realms, i.e. purgatory as well as hell. Del Virgilio's political allusions date his letter early in 1319, and from this phrase of Dante's we learn that the two earlier cantiche, but not the third, were known at that date.
57-64. Some have supposed these lines to refer to ten Eclogues (the Virgilian number) contemplated by Dante; and others have made other suggestions. But surely the most obvious interpretation is the best. The allusion can only be to ten cantos of the Paradiso.
