William Shakespeare
From JUOD
William Shakespeare or The Bard of Avon, or, as Harley P. Mathewson has called him, Shake-and-Bake, was a notable proto-joiner and one of the most famous writers in history. Shakespeare and Mathewson, according to Time Travel Theory, collaborated on a variety of works and even some parts of Mathewson's The Verities of Joining. Notable fictional joiner Snug the Joiner, a creation of Shakespeare's, was one seminal symbol of joining. Proponents of Reincarnation Theory argue instead that Mathewson is merely a reincarnation of Shakespeare. Additionally, among The Treasure of Harley P. Mathewson supposedly exists the only copies of the unperformed plays "Othello 2: The Dark Moor Returns," and "Henry VI, Part 4 (really, this is it this time, and no it's not Richard III, seriously)."
Visits with Mathewson
According to Time Travel Theory, Mathewson first visited Shakespeare around 1590, at the beginning of his career, though possibly before. Having been a fan of Shakespeare's plays, especially a certain line from "Hamlet," where the Hamlet tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to
Friends both, go join you with some further aid
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain (Act IV, Scene 1, 34-35).
This has cropped up in part as an alternative form of the Proposition ("Go join you, or die?"). Supposedly, Mathewson wanted to explore other uses of the word "join" which seems to pop up in various places in Shakespeare's writing. "Also," Mathewson has reported, "I wanted to see whether he was a fag or not." Apparently impressed with meeting the playwright, Mathewson and Shakespeare would have long drinking bouts, discoursing on various subjects and playing practical jokes on Christopher Marlowe, ultimately and accidentally resulting in Marlowe's death in 1593. Shakespeare and Mathewson had hired a man by the name of Ingrim Frizer to pretend to scare Marlowe by claiming he was Mephistophles and wanted Marlowe's soul. After Marlowe was stabbed to death by Frizer, during a fight, Mathewson is purported to have remarked, "He shouldn't have been standing there." Shakespeare supposedly laughed for three days straight at this remark.
Mathewson came back later, circa 1611, to ask definitively about the line from Hamlet (whether, as Mathewson interpreted, the play was actually about Hamlet's delay in killing non-joiner Polonius), and, again, "To make sure that he didn't turn into a fag after all those sonnets about dudes." While Shakespeare was supposedly very influential in Mathewson's poetic Big Fight Amongst the Sparklies, many have argued that Shakespeare based the character Prospero from his play "The Tempest" on Mathewson.
Shakespeare's Death
Some have argued that Mathewson imparted his Mathewsonist religion on Shakespeare, who became a practitioner of Joino-Mathewsonism, and died as a result of attempting to complete the Century Club with his friend, notable proto-joiner Ben Jonson.
