Note to King Lear, 4.1.10: "My father, poorly led?"


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King Lear,
Act 4, Scene 1, line 10
The usual reading of this line is that Edgar is shocked that his father, Gloucester, is "poorly led," being accompanied only by one very old [over 80] man, not a retinue of servants. However, it's possible that Shakespeare intended something much more shocking than "poorly led." At least one copy of the very first published text of King Lear has — instead of "poorly led" — "parti, eyd," which may mean "with parti-colored eyes," referring to the red blood seeping through the white bandage over Gloucester's empty eye-sockets.

Gloucester blinded