*La fin couronne l’œuvre = The end crowns all; All’s well that ends well.
Mettez la main à l’œuvre = Put your shoulder to the wheel.
*À l’œuvre on connaît l’artisan = A carpenter is known by his chips; The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
[La Fontaine, Fables, i. 21, Les frelons et la mouche à miel.]
Oindre
*Oignez vilain, il vous poindra:
Poignez vilain, il vous oindra.
[An old saying used by the French nobles during the middle ages, and found in a collection of proverbs of the thirteenth century.—Rab., i, 21. The Duc de Bourbon, in speaking before the États-Généraux in 1484, said: “Je connais le caractère des vilains. S’ils ne sont opprimés, il faut qu’ils oppriment.”
Comp. “Tender-handed stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.”
—Aaron Hill, Verses written on a window in Scotland.]
Oiseau
Il a battu les buissons, un autre a pris l’oiseau = He did the work and another had the profit.