[1.] Conceit. Affected wit. "Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needless but impairs what it would improve."—Pope.
[2.] fit. Proper. "Fit audience find, though few" (Milton, "Paradise Lost," V, 7).
[3.] wit. This is a favorite word with Pope, and is used by him to indicate a variety of ideas,—such as thought, knowledge, imagination, expression, the exercise of humor, etc. In this poem there are no fewer than twelve couplets rhyming to it.
[4.] "It requires very little reading of the French text-books to find the maxims which Pope has strung together in this poem, but he has dressed them so neatly, and turned them out with such sparkle and point, that these truisms have acquired a weight not their own, and they circulate as proverbs among us in virtue of their pithy form rather than their truth. They exemplify his own line, 'What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.' Pope told Spence that he had gone through all the best critics, specifying Quintilian, Rapin, and Le Bossu. But whatever trouble he took in collecting what to say, his main effort is expended upon how to say it."—Pattison.
[5.] as women men. "As women value men," or "as women by men are valued"—which?
[6.] humbly take upon content. Are satisfied to take in faith.
[7.] sort. Agree.
[8.] Fungoso. A character in Ben Jonson's comedy, "Every Man in his Humour."
[9.] sparks. Fops; vain, showy men.
[10.] Parnassus. A mountain in Hellas, the chief seat of Apollo and the Muses. Hence, figuratively, a resort of the poets.