Pey de Garros, a Provençal poet and…

Pey de Garros, a Provençal poet and a Protestant, had studied law, theology, and Hebrew at the University of Toulouse and eventually had become avocat-général of Pau.

He had published a rhymed Gascon translation of the Psalms of David (1565).

His Églogues go beyond the imitation of classical models, attempting to capture the true flavor of Gascon peasant life.

In the preface to his Poesias gasconas (1567; “Gascon Poetry”) he chides his fellow countrymen for preferring French to Gascon and pleads for a restoration of the native dialect, which he single-handedly has raised to the rank of a literary language.