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Nicolo or Nicolas Giraud (born – after 1815) was a friend and possibly a lover of the English Romantic poet Lord Byron. The two met in 1809 while Byron was staying in Athens. Giraud was reported to have taught him Italian, and was his travel companion in Greece. Byron paid for Giraud's education and left him £7,000 (about £ in ) in his will. Years after they parted company, Byron changed his will to exclude Giraud. Other than his involvement with Byron, little is known of Giraud's life. The friendship between Byron and Giraud has become a topic of interest among scholars and biographers of Byron. Many believe that the pair's relationship was platonic, but correspondence between Byron and his friends has been used since the late 20th century to argue that the two were engaged in a love affair. The earliest claim of a sexual relationship between them comes from George Colman's poem ''Don Leon'', in which Byron is the principal character and Giraud is portrayed as his liberator from the sexual prejudices in Britain. The poem is not biographical; it promotes Colman's own social and political views. ==Life== Nicolas Giraud was born in Greece to French parents; the name by which he is most commonly known, Nicolo, was given to him by Byron. Giraud may have been the brother-in-law of Giovanni Battista Lusieri, a Roman painter and broker for Lord Elgin. Demetrius Zograffo, Byron's guide in Greece, informed Byron that the 60-year-old Lusieri was unmarried, and was courting two women, each of whom believed that Lusieri was to marry her. Lusieri certainly had a close relationship with Giraud, so it is possible that the two were related in another way, perhaps as father and son. Byron met Giraud in Athens in January 1809, and the two were companions until Byron resumed his travels in March. During the following year, Giraud was working at a Capuchin monastery when he was assigned to teach Byron Italian after the latter's return to Greece. The two spent their days studying, swimming, and taking in the landscape as Byron composed poetry. In a letter to John Hobhouse, dated 23 August 1810 and written at the Capuchin monastery of Mendele near Athens where he was residing, Byron states: But my friend, as you may easily imagine, is Nicolo who by-the-by, is my Italian master, and we are already very philosophical. I am his "Padrone" and his "amico", and the Lord knows what besides. It is about two hours since, that, after informing me he was most desirous to follow him (that is me) over the world, he concluded by telling me it was proper for us not only to live, but "''morire insieme''" (together ). The latter I hope to avoid – as much of the former as he pleases.〔Marchand 1957 qtd. p. 254〕 Byron took Giraud to visit Charles Meryon, an English doctor who recounted the visit in his memoirs and noted Byron's vivid interest in the boy. Afterward, rumours were spread by Byron's servant that the consultation concerned an anal rupture. Meryon was a travelling companion with Michael Bruce and Lady Hester Stanhope, one of Byron's friends. Accounts from Bruce and Howe Browne, both witnesses to Byron's interactions with Giraud, provided confirmation of the relationship to Byron's early biographer Thomas Moore, although in disparaging terms. In mid-1810, Giraud acted as Byron's majordomo on their travels to the Peloponnese, and took care of Byron during his illness while at Patras, eventually becoming ill himself. After recovering, although still weak, the pair continued on their travels, arriving at Athens on 13 October. By November they were joined by Lusieri, Louis François Sébastien Fauvel, who was a French consul, and a group of German academics. Byron and Giraud parted ways in Valletta, Malta. Byron saw to Giraud's education by paying for his schooling in a monastery on the island. The two stayed in contact by letter, and after a year Giraud left the monastery, telling Byron that he was tired of the company of monks. Shortly after Giraud left Malta, Byron drew up for him in his will a bequest of £7,000 (£ in ), almost twice as much as he later lent for refitting the Greek Navy. The will read: "To Nicolo Giraud of Athens, subject of France, but born in Greece, the sume of seven thousand pounds sterling, to be paid from the sale of such parts of Rochdale, Newstead or elsewhere, as may enable the said Nicolo Giraud ... to receive the above sum on his attaining the age of twenty-one years."〔Quennell 1967 qtd. pp. 29–30〕 Byron later removed Giraud from his will (as he did with John Edleston – who predeceased him – and other boyhood companions). Giraud wrote to Byron in January 1815: Byron had not been responding to Nicolo's letters, which Nicolo mentions in the letter: "It is now almost three years that I am at Athens; and have sent you many letters, but I have not received any answer".〔Grosskurth 1997 qtd. p. 126〕 It is possible that Byron did not respond because he was married and, according to the 20th-century Byron biographer Phyllis Grosskurth, "Nicolo was the last person he would have wanted to hear from." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nicolo Giraud」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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