Congreve's Mourning Bride, act i. sc. i. l. 1.
"L'appetit vient en mangeant."
Rabelais, Gargantua, Liv. i. chap. 5. (vol. i. p. 136, ed. Variorum. Paris, 1823. 8vo.)
This proverb had been previously used by Amyot, and probably also by Jerome le (or de) Hangest, who was a Doctor of the Sorbonne, and adversary of Luther, and who died in 1538.—Ibid. p. 136 (note 49.).
I know not how old may be "to put the cart before the horse." Rabelais (i. 227.) has—
"Il mettoyt la charrette devant les beufz."
"If the sky falls, we shall catch larks."