The Favourite

If Medice is Shakspere, what is his relationship with Vere?

In the The Gentleman Usher, Medice is listed in the Dramatis Personae as..
Medice – the favourite of Duke Alphonso.

The text further emphasizes Medice as the minion, or favorite.

“My father and his minion, Medice.” (III, ii, 309)
“There’s Medice, the minion of my father.” (III, ii, 94)
“That unknown minion.” (I, i, 108)

Medice is the right-hand man of Duke Alphonso. And we learn that he’s the only minion the Duke has.

“The Duke has none for him, but Medice,” (I, i, 107)

Rambler’s recent posts here and here are must reading.  The Duke in The Gentleman Usher is closely associated with the boar. He’s is read the boar poem, prior to the boar hunt. A boar hunt is also the subject of the amorous device the Duke stages to woo Margaret.

If Duke Alphonso is Vere, then the Shakes-peare/Shaksper relationship is one of a nobleman and his right-hand man.  

I’m sketching this idea out lightly now, but we will return again and again to add details. Next up, we’ll look at the end of the play where Medice tells his life story, and perhaps we will learn how he went from Stratford to the pages of the First Folio.