6D. One’s Left By Lover Hiding Drug Dependency.

[Vulcanpilot]

I’ve got the answer Isle of Man but don’t the “by lover hiding drug” bit The drug is E I presume.

[TheFrogman]

I believe that the intended parsing of the wordplay is I'S ("One's") L ('left') OF ('by') MAN ('lover') around ('hiding') E ('drug').

'Of' was used until the 1600s in preference to 'by' when describing the agent of an act, eg 'He was commanded of God to change his ways', and is still in occasional literary use (eg 'much beloved of'). Chambers gives 'by' under 'of' and 'male sexual partner' under 'man'.

[dannyk13]

Frogman,that is how I parsed it, but it is a poor clue IMO.

[TheFrogman]

I'm confident that your original parsing is correct, Danny. I don't know what puzzle the clue comes from - I think it would be ok in a barred puzzle where Chambers is the stated reference, but in a back pager, no.

[ProfessorMaisie]

Yes, I agree with 'man' for lover - sorry to have confused things (I've got so used to crosswords with this that and the other missing, added or jumbled!).