Good grief! I've killed this thread!
Right, then - the answer to the Jane Austen riddle:
My first doth affliction denote -----
Woe
Which my second is destin'd to feel. -----
man
And my whole is the best antidote
That affliction to soften and heal.
Answer ----- Woe + man =
Woman
Yes, horridly sexist, perhaps . . . but anyway it's solved.
Someone else please carry on . . .