[They fight, and Clifford falls.
At the point of death Clifford uses the words (l. 28), La fin couronne les œuvres.[[148]]—“The end crowns the work.” It was, no doubt, a common proverb; but it is one which would suggest to the Emblem writer his artistic illustration, and, with a little change, from some such illustration it appears to have been borrowed. Whitney (p. 130) records a resemblance to it among the sayings of the Seven Sages, dedicated “to Sir Hvghe Cholmeley Knight,”—
“And Solon said, Remember still thy ende.”
Perriere, 1539.
The two French Emblems alluded to above are illustrative of the proverb, “The end makes us all equal,” and both use a very appropriate and curious device from the game of chess. Take, first, Emb. 27 from Perriere’s Theatre des Bons Engins: Paris, 1539,—
XXVII.
Le Roy d’eſchez, pendant que le ieu dure,
Sur ses ſubiectz ha grande preference,
Sy l’on le matté̩[e/]̩, il conuiẽt qu’il endure