When Curtis compares Grumio to a three-inch nail, Grumio takes it as a slur on the size of his manhood. He claims that his penis is at least a foot long, and so are the horns growing from Curtis’ forehead. The image of horns growing from a man’s head was associated with the traditional depiction of a cuckold, a man whose wife is cheating on him.

This imagery stems from a practice in medieval Germany where villages would ridicule the cuckolded husband by tying a set of antlers onto his head and leading him through the streets. This symbolically reflected the fact that everyone in the village, except himself, could see what a fool he was.