"black as Caesar's tail"

[James Harbeck]

I wonder whether there was originally some sort of deliberate
contrast at work between this and "Great Caesar's ghost" -- which
would presumably be white. A bit of a stretch, to be sure, but not
utterly impossible as an influence at least. "Great Caesar's ghost"
came around in the 19th century, as a replacement for "Great God" and
other such terms; if we could determine that it was present and known
at the time "black as Caesar's tail" was first used, and if there
were any other similar-style references to Caesar, it could be
interesting and might suggest a similar sort of origin to that of
"cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey," which was one
of a string of brass monkey references including "hot enough to melt
the nose off a brass monkey" and "cold enough to freeze the tail off
a brass monkey" (thanks to Michael Quinion for the the monkey
business -- http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bra1.htm).

Are there early cites for "black as _____'s tail" where ____ is not
Caesar? A person who on occasion said "Great Caesar's ghost" might
make a variation on something like "black as Nero's tail" or even
"black as a demon's tail" (or whatever) for the usual reasons of
self-amusement and self-reference.

Of course, why Caesar's ghost, and not somone else's, in the first
place? Perhaps the influence went in the other direction. Or perhaps
there was a vogue for Ceasarean references... I'd dig, but I have
other things demanding my attention.

James Harbeck.

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