Status Updates From Byron's Letters and Journal...

To Countess Teresa Guiccioli ... "ever yours most affectionately A. A. in e." ... which means 'amico e amante in eterno' ('friend and lover for ever').

"... I always liked that boy - perhaps, in part, from some resemblance in the less fortunate part of our destinies - I mean, to avoid mistakes, his lameness. But there is this difference, that he appears a halting angel, who has tripped against a star; whilst I am Le Diable Boiteux - a sobriquet which I marvel that, amongst their various nominis umbrae, the Orthodox have not hit upon."

"... But I am prosing. The gods go with you, and as much immortality of all kinds as may suit your present and all other existence. Yours, &c."

"Man is born passionate of body - but with an innate though secret tendency to the love of Good in his Main-spring of Mind. - But God help us all! - It is at present a sad jar of atoms."

Slow going on this one... Why do I find it hard work to read letters?