When William Shakespeare died, he famously made only one bequest to his wife of many years; the "second-best bed with the furniture". While this is often interpreted as a slight against Agnes 'Anne' Hathaway, few realise the significance of that particular bed in Shakespeare's life. The 'second-best bed', as William calls it, was responsible for most of his success as an author as this was his main connection to the Immortal Bard Machine, an infinite number of Williams Shakespeare from across the multiverse, all writing rapidly on typewriters (provided by the Shakespeare from the universe where they'd already invented typewriters). From here, Shakespeare could peruse alternate versions of his work and select the versions he most enjoyed to memorise and take back to his own personal timestream.
Like many playwrights of the era, Shakespeare worked closely with other writers on several of his plays. Whether or not these collaborators knew about the Immortal Bard Machine is unknown. Similarly, the versions of Shakespeare who escaped the Machine into our universe and adopted new identities (such as Edward de Vere or William Stanley) were unable to relink themselves with the great collective via the aforementioned Bed. Only some of Shakespeare's descendants have shown this capability, and the last known member fled to America in the mid-1600s. Rumours suggest they now use the power of the I.B.M. for technological research, but my attempts to research further in the US are still being thwarted by the followers of Caesar aurantiacus and the Acolytes of the Golden Bull.
More Fun Facts