Introducing Shakespeare: A Graphic Guide - Nick Groom, Piero 2013

Preposterous Facts and Scholarly Scepticism

Meanwhile, 18th-century editing was not without its mischief. George Steevens, “the Puck of commentators”, impishly attributed his elucidations of Shakespeare’s bawdy to two strait-laced clergymen, and added preposterous footnotes to the text. For example, for Twelfth Night, l.iii.42, he glossed a “parish top” ..

This is one of the old customs now laid aside. A large [spinning] top was formerly kept in every village, to be whipped in frosty weather, that the peasants may be kept warm by exercise, and out of mischief, while they could not work.

THE NOTE SURVIVES INTO THE CURRENT RIVERSIDE EDITION, FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1974 …!