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Nicolò Giraud (c.1795-?) is known for his relationship with George Gordon Byron as both a friend and as a possible lover. He met the poet during the latter's stay in Athens, probably around 1810. They spent a great deal of time together, riding and swimming at the Pireus every day. There is little known about Giraud besides the few details from Byron and those that knew Byron.

Byron and Giraud's relationship became a topic of interest amongst many biographers and scholars of Byron. The information about Giraud was at first interpreted as proof that the two had a simple platonic relationship. Later, as letters from Byron to his friends were decoded, it became apparent to many scholars that the two had been engaged in a torrid love affair. One of the early sources of information about the relationship was George Colman's poem, Don Leon, which describes a love relationship between Giraud and Byron.

Biography

Giraud, the brother-in-law of the Roman painter Giovanni Battista Lusieri, was born in Greece to French parents. In January 1809, Byron met the 15 year old Giraud in Athens during his travels. and the two became friends until Byron was to return to his travels in March. A year later, he worked at a monastery and was assigned to teach Byron Italian when Byron returned to Greece. The two would spend their days with their studies, with swimming, and taking in the landscape.

After Byron took Giraud to visit an English doctor (a visit the doctor recounts in his memoirs, noting Byron's vivid interest in the boy), rumors were spread by a servant that the consultations regarded an anal rupture. Accounts from Michael Bruce and Lord Sligo confirmed the relationship, though in disparaging terms. In the summer of 1810, Giraud was made Byron's major-domo when they traveled to Peloponnese. When Byron became ill at Patras, Giraud became his care taker and eventually became sick himself. After both recovered but were still suffering from weakness, Byron continued with Giraud on his travel and they arrived at Athens on 13 October. By November, they were joined by Lusieri, a French Consul, and a group of German academics.

Byron and Giraud eventually parted ways in Valetta. It was then that Byron saw to Giraud's education by paying for his schooling in a monastery on the island of Malta. The two stayed in communication through letters, and after a year, Giraud left the monastery after telling Byron that he was tired of the company of monks.

Relationship with Byron

Byron's early biographer, Thomas Moore, described the relationship between Byron and Giraud as:

During this period of his stay in Greece, we find him forming one of those extraordinary friendships - if attachment to persons so inferior to himself can be called by that name - of which I have already mentioned two or three instances in his younger days, and in which the pride of being a protector, and the pleasure of exerting gratitude, seem to have constituted to his mind the chief, pervading charm. The person, whom he now adopted in this manner, and from similar feelings to those which had inspired his early attachments to the cottage-boy near Newstead, and the young chorister at Cambridge, was a Greek youth, named Nicolo Giraud, the son, I believe, of a widow lady, in whose house the artist Lusieri lodged. In this young man he appear to have taken the most lively, and even brotherly, interest.

However, Moore's work was commented on by Byron's close friend, John Hobhouse, who noted that "Moore had not the remotest guess at the real reason which induced Lord B. at that time to prefer having no Englishman immediately or constantly near him." Regardless of Moore's bias against the lower class and Byron's spending time with other boys during his times in Greece, Byron was close to Giraud while the two were together.

In a letter from August 23, 1810 to Hobhouse written at the Capuchin monastery of Mendele near Athens where he was residing, Byron states: "But my friend, as you may easily imagine, is Nicolò 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' . The latter I hope to avoid - as much of the former as he pleases."

Andrew Maurois argues that "what Byron was capable of loving in another was a certain kind of innocence and youthfulness" and that the relationship was one of Byron's "protective passions". Likewise, G. Wilson Knight believes that Byron became protective over Giraud, just like how Byron treated all of the other children that he met during his travels. However, Giraud was special to Byron, and, according to Knight, "it was probably of Nicolo that he was thinking when he wrote that Greece was 'the only place I was ever contented in'". Leslie Marchand points out that Byron "wished Hobhouse there to share the nonsensical gaiety" of when Byron and Giraud were together, but changed his mind after remembering that Hobhouse's personality would not be conducive to entertainment. Their time together "was a relaxed pleasure that was to remember more fondly than most of the adventures of his travels."

A few critics disagree with the speculation over Giraud's and Byron's relationship. The early 20th century biographer, Ethel Mayne, points out both the commonality of such a relationship to Byron and the inherent ambiguity when she says, "His stay was also marked by one of those amibiguous friendships with a youth infinitely below him in rank which have already been seen to recur in his life... The patron was supposed to be learning Italian from ; this made a pretext for giving him, on their parting at Malta in 1811...a considerable sum of money". Elizabeth Longford disagrees with the claims that there was a physical relationship between the two and argues, "Byron's especial favorite among the 'ragazzi' was Nicolo Giraud. He had first taken up with Nicolo while Hobhouse was away in Euboea the year before, but there is no evidence that his feelings for Nicolo were anything but romantic and protective". Jerome Christensen argues that "we know little more than what Byron tells us".

However, Christensen is quick to point out that "Although there is no evidence that Lord Byron, padrone and amico, was ever so vulgar as to set an exact market value on his sexual arrangements in Greece, Nicolo Giraud, Eustathius's replacement in Byron's affections, was employed as 'dragoman and Major Domo', a position that almost certainly entailed payment in love and money". D. L. MacDonald simply describes Giraud as "The great love of Byron's Eastern tour", and D. S. Neff describes the two as part of "an amorous relationship". Others, like Jay Losey and William Brewer, speculate that Byron's relationship with Giraud was modeled on a Grecian form of pederasty and homosexual studies scholar Louis Crompton believed that pederasty was a facet of Byron's life and that his letters hinted towards a sexual relationship between Byron and Giraud. As Paul Douglass points out, Crompton also claimed that biographers like Leslie Marchand ignored the nature of Byron's relationship with Giraud. However, Douglass also reveals that Crompton's work, Byron and Greek Love "focuses Byron's life around a single issue, rather than attempting to create a larger view. Such studies prompt negative responses from those who feel the writer warps Byron to fit the theme, presenting a one-sided account".

Benita Eisler argues that Giraud was one of many of Byron's intended sexual conquests. Although, as Eisler claims, Byron was at first unable to attain "that state of total and complete satisfaction" of a sexual relationship with Giraud, he wrote to Charles Matthews declaring that he would soon conquer any of the boy's remaining inhibitions. During Byron's illness, Byron boasted to Lady Melbourne that he would have sex and that he almost died during one such incident, and boasted to Hobhouse of having frequent sex. Although it is uncertain, according to Eisler, "Whether this surfeit of erotic fulfillment involved only Nicolo as partner, he does not say. He was still fond enough of the boy, but his sexual obsession, with its attendant scorekeeping, seems to have run its course." However, Nigel Leask believes that Hobhouse would have been disapproving of Byron's relationship with Giraud, and Fiona MacCarthy notes that Lady Melbourne "would have understood his partner to be female". In a survey of the various biographical opinions and disagreements about Byron's relationships, including Giraud, written before 2004, Douglass points out that "despite the greater certainty about his sexual ambivalence, the exact nature of those relationships remains elusive."

Shortly after Giraud left Malta, Byron drew up for him in his will an annuity to the sum of 7000 pounds sterling, almost twice as much as he would later lend 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." However, Byron later removed Giraud from his will like he did with his other boyish companions, including John Edleston.

The two continued to stay in communication, and Giraud wrote to Byron January 1815:

My most precious Master, I cannot describe the grief of my heart at not seeing you for such a long time. Ah, if only I were a bird and could fly so as to come and see you for one hour, and I would be happy to die at the same time. Hope tells me that I shall see you again and that is my consolation for not dying immediately. It is two years now since I spoke English. I have completely forgotten it.

Don Leon

George Colman, Byron's friend, wrote a poem called Don Leon that, according to Bernard Grebanier, "depicts Byron as having wooed Giraud with gifts when they first met, and to have busied himself with developing the boy's mind."

The narrator of Don Leon praises Giraud and claims that Giraud was so beautiful that he:

Gave pleasing doubts of what his sex might be;

And who that saw him would perplexed have been,

For beauty marked his gender epicoene.

Throughout the poem, the narrator describes how Byron (Don Leon) would spend his time with Giraud:

Spent half in love and half in poetry!

The muse each morn I wooed, each eve the boy,

And tasted sweets that never seemed to cloy.

The poem ends with Giraud's beauty conquering any fears that Byron may have about their relationship:

But thou, Giraud, whose beauty would unlock

The gates of prejudice, and bid me mock

The sober fears that timid minds endure,

Whose ardent passions women only cure,

Receive this faithful tribute to thy charms,

Not vowed alone, but paid too in thy arms.

For here the wish, long cherished, long denied,

Within that monkish cell was gratified.

G. Wilson Knight, unlike most early critics, thought the poem was worthy of response, but he was to say that it was from "the most indecent poet of high quality in our literature". However, Grebanier believes that Colman, "As a recipient of Byron's confidence during a crucial period of the poet's life, and as a man who shared Byron's hatred of pretense, he must have seen an ideal subject in presenting ruthlessly, even brutally, the basic truths about Byron's moral dilemma, as a powerful means of blasting once more that sanctimoniousness which has always been fashionable in Britain." Colman's purpose was not necessarily to discuss Giraud, but was to respond to those who spread rumours about Byron and criticized Byron for his failed marriage, which was the reason for his exile. However, the poem does focus on Giraud, and, as Grebanier argues,"If, the poem says, our hero's affections were fastened upon Nicolo Giraud, the affair, after all, took place in a Turkish world; he was but following the custom of the country. Once he had seen a beautiful Ganymede of fifteen attending the Turkish Governor, a Grecian youth, publicly known as the Governor's 'catamite.' Was it criminal to do what the Governor was doing?"

Byrne Fone emphasizes how the poem and the fictional discussion of Giraud and Byron's relationship reveal insights into 19th-century British views on homosexuality. To Fone, the poem was written by one who knew Byron and that the poem revealed Byron's homosexuality. To Fone, the 1833 publication of the poem was prompted by both the arrest of William Bankes, a homosexual friend of Byron's, and the execution of Henry Nicholls for homosexual activity. The poem's references to well known homosexual men, including William Beckford and William Courtenay, used both to talk about the unfair treatment homosexual men who committed no real crime, and that England is hypocritical when it comes to sex. The poem then claims that England's treatment of homosexuals forces Don Leon to travel to Greece in order to fulfill his desires and be free of intellectual control, which is fulfilled when Don Leon is able to be with Giraud. The fictional Giraud, according to Fone, allows Don Leon to break free of the homophobia of England. The poem, as he points out, tries to convince Moore to mention the homosexual desires of Byron. Fone concludes, "It is not only the poem that is an effective attack on homophobic prejudice, but the example of the poet himself"

Notes

1. ^ MacCarthy 2002 p. 128
2. Grebanier 1970 p. 69
3. ^ Longford 1976 p. 40
4. MacCarthy 2002 pp. 128–129
5. Marchand 1957 pp. 260–261
6. Moore 1835 p. 114
7. Crompton, 1998, p.375
8. Knight 1953 pp. 71–72
9. Maurois 1930 p. 555
10. Maurois 1930 p. 140
11. Knight 1953 p. 77
12. Knight 1953 p. 72
13. Marchand 1957 p. 255
14. Marchand 1957 p. 256
15. Mayne 1913 pp. 179–180
16. Christensen 1993 p. 59
17. Christensen 1993 p. 61
18. MacDonald 1986 p. 61
19. Neff 2002 p. 408
20. Losey and Brewer 2000 p. 75
21. Crompton 1998 p. 148
22. Douglass 2004 p. 22
23. Eisler 2000 p. 273
24. Eisler 2000 p. 274
25. Leask 2004 p. 111
26. MacCarthy 2002 p. 129
27. Douglass 2004 pp. 22–23
28. ^ MacCarthy 2002 p. 135
29. Lord Byron By George Wilson Knight, p.185
30. Quennell 1967 qtd. pp. 29–30
31. Quennell 1967 p. 32
32. ^ Grebanier 1970 p. 76
33. ^ Grebanier 1970 p. 77
34. Grebanier 1970 pp. 77–78
35. Grebanier 1970 p. 78
36. Fone 2001 pp. 258

References

• Christensen, Jerome (1993), Lord Byron's Strength, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0801843553
• Crompton, Louis (1998), Byron and Greek Love: Homophobia in 19th-century England, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, ISBN 0854492631
• Douglass, Paul (2004), "Byron's life and his biographers", in Bone, Drummond (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Byron, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 7–26, ISBN 0521786762
• Eisler, Benita (2000), Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame, New York: Vintage Books, ISBN 0679740856
• Fone, Byrne (2001), Homophobia: A History, New York: Macmillan, ISBN 0312420307
• Grebanier, Bernard (1970), The Uninhibited Byron: An Account of His Sexual Confusion, New York: Crown Publishers
• Knight, G. Wilson (1952), Lord Byron: Christian Virtues, New York: Oxford University Press
• Leask, Nigel (2004), "Byron and the Eastern Mediterranean: Child Harold II and the 'polemic of Ottoman Greece'", in Bone, Drummond (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Byron, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 99–117, ISBN 0521786762
• Longford, Elizabeth (1976), The Life of Byron, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, ISBN 0316531928
• Losey, Jay; Brewer, William (2000), Mapping Male Sexuality : 19th Century England, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, ISBN 0838638287
• MacCarthy, Fiona (2002), Byron: Life and Legend, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ISBN 0374186294
• MacDonald, D. L. "Orientalism and Eroticism in Byron and Merrill" Pacific Coast Philology, Vol. 21, No. 1/2 (Nov., 1986), pp. 60–64
• Marchand, Leslie (1957), Byron: A Biography, New York: Alfred A. Knopf
• Maurois, Andrew. Byron. trans. Hamish Miles. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1930.
• Mayne, Ethel Colburn (1913), Byron, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons {{citation}}: External link in |title= (help)
• Moore, Thomas (1839), The works of Lord Byron : with his letters and journals, and his life, London: J. Murray {{citation}}: External link in |title= (help)
• Neff, D. S. "Bitches, Mollies, and Tommies: Byron, Masculinity, and the History of Sexualities" Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Jul., 2002), pp. 395–438
• Quennell, Peter (1967), Byron: The Years of Fame, London: Collins, OCLC 954942

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