Meaning & Analysis
To arrange a horse-drawn cart by placing the cart in front of the horse, an action that is illogical and makes it impossible for the horse to pull the cart forward.
Insights
Illogical Sequencing
The proverb signifies doing things in the wrong or unnatural order, tackling a secondary step before the primary one, thus ensuring failure or creating an absurd situation.
Reversal of Cause and Effect
It represents a fundamental misunderstanding of cause and effect, where a consequence is addressed or positioned as if it were the cause, leading to a dysfunctional outcome.
Flawed Process
The phrase is a critique of poor planning and a lack of foresight, where essential preparatory work is skipped in a rush to achieve a final objective.
Preposterous Action
It serves as a metaphor for any action or argument that is 'preposterous' (from Latin 'prae' meaning 'before' and 'posterus' meaning 'coming after'), meaning contrary to nature, reason, or common sense.
Classical and Rhetorical Roots
Originating in classical antiquity and popularized by Renaissance humanists like Erasmus, the proverb's core imagery of reversing a cart and horse reflects a fundamental violation of natural and logical order. Its citation as the English equivalent of the Greek rhetorical term 'Hysteron proteron' (the latter put first) highlights its deep connection to formal logic and rhetoric.
Agrarian Symbolism
The proverb draws its power from the universally understood roles of the horse (power) and cart (burden) in an agrarian economy. This simple, rustic imagery makes the abstract concept of illogical sequencing immediately accessible and self-evidently absurd, requiring no complex explanation.
Cognitive and Planning Error
Psychologically, the proverb points to a common cognitive error: the failure to distinguish between cause and effect, or prioritizing outcomes over necessary processes. It critiques impatience and poor planning, where a desired result (the cart's movement) is attempted without establishing its prerequisite (the horse's pulling).
Literary and Social Commentary
As used by Shakespeare in 'King Lear', the phrase becomes a potent tool for social commentary. The Fool's line, 'May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse?', uses the proverb to condemn the king's abdication of power as a decision so preposterously illogical that even a fool can see its folly.
Rhetorical Devices
Absurdist Imagery
The core of the proverb is its vivid, nonsensical imagery. The mental picture of a cart pushing a horse is inherently absurd, making the lesson about proper order instantly clear and memorable.
Metaphor
The physical relationship between the cart and horse serves as a powerful metaphor for the logical relationship between any two sequential actions, where one is dependent on the other.
Symbolism
The proverb uses the concrete, everyday objects of a 'cart' and 'horse' to represent the abstract concepts of 'effect' and 'cause' or 'consequence' and 'prerequisite'.
Transcription
Quotations
Plaustrum bovem trahit.
The teycher setteth the cart before the horse that preferreth imitacyon before preceptes.
Muche like as if we woulde go make the carte to drawe the horse.
Or set the cart before the hors, well he can.
(Currus bouem trahit. Ye set).
We call it in English proverbe, the cart before the horse, the Greeks call it Histeron proteron, we name it the Preposterous.
(We say, to set).
(He setteth and horses).
The Cart before the horse.
Disordered, like the cart before the horse, All reu'rence and respect did yeeld to force.
[As in 1616 Withals].
(You put).
To set the cart before the oxen, viz. to do things preposterously; the English say, the cart before the horse.
(You drive).
[As in 1616 Withals].
Shakespeare Citations
May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse?
Cross References
- See DüR., II, no. 222
- St., no. 1756.
- P434 The plow goes before the oxen.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.