"And why, he cry'd, this grief and this despair?
You shall again be well, again be fair;
Believe my oath; (with that an oath he swore)
False was his oath; my beauty is no more!"
Flavia remembers that her lover tried to cheer her with promises of the future when she had small pox. She rightfully predicted that her beauty would not survive the illness even if her body did. Now she bitterly recalls how Machaon made promises he couldn't keep.
"To you appealing I submit my cause.
Nor fear a judgement from impartial laws. . .
Defrauded servants are from service free;
A wounded slave regains his liberty.
For wives ill used no remedy remains,
To daily racks condemned, and to eternal chains."
Mrs. Yonge appeals to heaven to judge how she has been unfairly treated by her husband. She notes how even servants can end a contract when they are mistreated, but for the wife there is no solution, her marriage is for life. She has come to view her marriage as a prison sentence from which no appeal can be made.
"Farewell to Deard's, and all her toys,
Which glitter in her shop,
Deluding traps to girls and boys,
The warehouse of the fop."
Montagu bids farewell individually to people she's grown to know in Bath, one of whom is Deard, a woman who owns a toy store. Deard apparently is not the most scrupulous business owner and sells insufficient toys which easily break, making her a kind of temptress. Her business rests upon attracting new customers.
"All the morals that they tell us,
Never cured the sorrow yet:
Chuse, among the pretty fellows,
One of honor, youth, and wit."
Montagu writes to poor Delia who has lost her husband. As a fellow woman, she expresses a familiarity with losing a loved one and becoming ill with grief. She advises Delia to admit that she needs a mate and to choose a good man to help her recover.
