Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 16, 2014

Nicolo Giraud (born c. 1795 – unknown) was a friend and possibly 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 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, published in 1833, in which Byron is the principal character and Giraud is portrayed as his liberator from the sexual prejudices in Britain. One modern writer says that the poem and the fictional discussion of their relationship provide insights into 19th-century British views on homosexuality. (Full article...)

Recently featured: Mycena aurantiomarginata – AHS Centaur – Millennium Force