Meaning & Analysis
A derogatory nickname suggesting that people from the county of Kent in England had physically long tails. This belief stemmed from various legends and accusations, including divine punishment for mocking a saint or as a metaphor for their supposed habit of leaving debts unpaid.
Insights
Enduring Stigma
The 'long tails' serve as a metaphor for a lasting stigma or mark of shame that follows a person or group, whether deserved or not. It represents a reputation that is difficult to shed.
Regional Prejudice
The term functions as a symbol of regional otherness and prejudice. It caricatures an entire community, reducing its identity to a single, absurd, and derogatory physical trait.
Symbol of Defiant Identity
In its reappropriated form, 'long tails' symbolize a defiant and unique identity. Paired with 'liberty', it represents the Kentish people's pride in their distinct history and their refusal to be conquered or shamed.
Legendary Origins and Divine Punishment
The proverb is rooted in English folklore, most famously in legends where Kentish people (or residents of Strood) mocked St. Thomas Becket or St. Augustine and were consequently cursed to grow tails. This tale frames the term as a mark of divine punishment for sacrilege.
Metaphor for Financial Dishonesty
The quotation from Moryson (1617) offers a fascinating economic interpretation, linking the 'tails' to the unpaid remainder of debts left by Kentish traders in the Low Countries. This transforms the proverb from a physical curse into a metaphor for commercial untrustworthiness.
Reappropriation as a Badge of Honor
As shown in Drayton's 'Poly-Olbion' (1622), the people of Kent eventually reappropriated the insult, pairing it with their famed love of 'Libertie'. The 'long tail' evolved from a symbol of shame into a badge of proud, unconquered identity, reflecting a powerful act of cultural defiance.
Psychology of Regional Stereotyping
Fuller's analysis (1662) suggests the term was an insult originally applied by foreigners to all English people, but it only 'stuck' to those from Kent. This reveals the psychological process of how stereotypes are formed and localized, making one group the scapegoat for a broader prejudice.
Rhetorical Devices
Epithet
The phrase acts as a concise and memorable epithet, a descriptive nickname used to characterize an entire regional group, initially for derogatory purposes.
Allusion
The proverb is built on historical and folkloric allusions, requiring outside knowledge of legends (like the curse of St. Thomas Becket) or historical contexts (trade with the Low Countries) to be fully understood.
Symbolism
The 'long tails' function as a powerful, multi-layered symbol, representing divine punishment, financial debt, and, ultimately, reclaimed regional pride.
Transcription
Quotations
The Valiannt Courage and Policie of the Kentishmen with long Tayles.
The Kentish men of old were said to have tayles, because trafficking in the Low-Countries, they neuer paid full payments of what they did owe, but still left some part unpaid.
Kent, first in our account, doth to it selfe apply, (Quoth he) this Blazon first, Long Tayles and Libertie.
I shall not dispute whether Long-tails of Kent. Or Papist this name of disgrace did invent.
*To come closer to . . this Proverb, I conceive it first of outlandish extraction, and cast by Forraigners as a note of dis-grace on all the English, though it chanceth to stick only on the Kentish at this Day.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.