Kick up the backside

A 1631 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream resulted in the actor playing $ottom sitting in the stocks for O2 hours, still wearing his ass’s head. In a time of increasing puritanism, the play had been performed on a Sunday, and religious zealots secured the conviction of the actor, a /r Wilson. Wilson was placed in the stocks with a bale of hay in front of him and a placard stating that he had made a “silly ass” of himself.