The final section of the poem begins with the reaction of Belinda's audience, who "melt in tears" as they look at the heroine. After a few more mythological allusions (to Jupiter or Zeus, to Fate, and to Aeneas and Dido), Pope then presents another speech.
Clarissa is the speaker of the speech on good humor (lines 9-34). This speech is, obviously, presented as a direct contrast to Belinda's speech. It also provides the author's viewpoint regarding the entire situation. Basically, Clarissa compares and contrasts beauty with virtue. Clarissa states that a woman who has achieved the praise of men because of her beauty has really achieved nothing "unless good sense preserve what beauty gains" (line 16). In other words, Clarissa is implying that the praise will vanish as the woman gets older and begins to lose her beauty. The speaker adds that beauty has no real power in itself. It cannot cure diseases, like smallpox, or stop people from becoming old (line 20). But "frail beauty must decay" (line 25). As a woman gets older, her beauty disappears. Clarissa then moves to her main point:
What then remains but well our power to use,
And keep good humor still whate'er we lose?
(lines 29-30)
Essentially, Clarissa is stating that since a woman will lose her beauty, she should at least try to keep her good humor. The expression "good humor" refers to keeping one's passions (especially negative emotions) under control. Moreover, the expression suggests the use of reason. A reasonable woman knows that her beauty will fade. Therefore, she will not place so much emphasis on that particular quality. Clarissa ends the speech with these final words of advice:
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
(line 34)
She means that although a man may be attracted to a woman because of her beauty, such beauty will not win his love. When the woman's beauty fades (and if that is the only quality that the man likes about her), the man will leave her. But a man who loves the merits or virtues (the internal qualities) of a woman will continue to love that woman even after her beauty has left her.
None of the people in the coffeehouse, however, seem to agree with Clarissa. The people in the coffeehouse then begin to take sides: some for Belinda, some for the Baron. Just as The Iliad ends with a large epic battle, so too does Pope's mock epic. Here also Pope uses battle imagery and language and mythological allusions in describing the "battle" in the coffeehouse.
The battle in the coffeehouse, though, is not a physical one. Rather, the action is comprised of frowns and dark looks. For example, Thalestris storms through the coffeehouse and "scatters death around from both her eyes" (line 58). That is, she gives angry looks at the men who side with the Baron.
In Greek mythology there is a force more powerful than the gods. That force is Fate. To know what Fate demands, Zeus, the mightiest of the Greek gods, would hold up a scale. Fate would determine the outcome of a serious event like the Trojan War.
In Pope's epic Jove (or Jupiter, the Roman equivalent to Zeus) holds up a scale (lines 71-74). Fate determines that Belinda's side should win the war. In other words, the Baron will not be able to keep the lock of hair.
The war ends with the battle of the two champions, a typical device or formula in epic literature. Here Belinda encounters the Baron directly just as Achilles encountered Hector in The Iliad. Belinda's weapon, though, is a pinch of "snuff" (line 82) a small amount of tobacco that fashionable people in London would sometimes inhale. Belinda throws the snuff at the Baron, and that causes him to sneeze: "the high dome re-echoes to his nose" (line 86). What the reader does not find out until later, though, is that when the Baron sneezes, he loses the lock of hair. Belinda does not know either. So, she pulls out a "bodkin," a long, sharp hairpin. The word bodkin can also refer to a dagger or knife. So, this hairpin becomes Belinda's deadly weapon.
In some medieval stories, a warrior's sword might actually have a history of its own. The metal that the sword is made out of may have come from another weapon or armor that belonged to some ancestor or famous hero. In Pope's mock epic, Belinda's hairpin also has a history. Pope jokingly provides the history of this bodkin or hairpin. The metal was used in the following items:
Pope then returns to his story. The Baron submits to Belinda and declares (in mock epic language) that death does not scare him. He only fears losing Belinda (line 100). Belinda, though, only demands that he return the lock of hair to her. At that point they discover that the hair is missing (line 108).
The people in the coffeehouse look for the lock of hair but cannot find it. They try to figure out what happened to it. Some of them even think it is on the moon, "the lunar sphere" (line 113). According to an old and silly superstition, everything that is lost ends up on the moon.
Pope's muse, Caryll, however, sees what really happens to the lock (line 124-32). Apparently, when the Baron lost it, it flew up into the skies like a shooting star and became a fixed star in the heavens. This is similar, as Pope alludes to an Egyptian story. Berenice, the wife of Ptolemy III, the ruler of Egypt, presented a lock of her hair to the gods in return for her husband's safe return from war. The hair was turned into a constellation (a group or cluster of stars).
Pope also explains that the Sylphs were also quite happy to see Belinda's hair fly upward, and they chased after it. Pope then adds (in line 135) that the new star looks even brighter than the planet Venus (the planet of love named after the Roman goddess, an equivalent to the Greek Aphrodite). So, thereafter, lovers from the earth will look and think that the light from the planet of love is shining on them.
Pope concludes by directly telling Belinda to stop her crying for the lock because now part of her is immortal. The lock will continue to blaze for countless generations and will be a lasting memorial of Belinda's beauty and fame.