GARROS, PEY DE

born c. 1530, , Lectoure, near Agen, France died 1585, Pau Provenal poet whose work raised the Gascon dialect to the rank of a literary language in 16th-century France. A Protestant, Garros studied law, theology, and Hebrew at the University of Toulouse and later became avocat-gnral of Pau. In the preface to his Poesias gasconas (1567; Gascon Poetry) he chided his fellow countrymen for preferring French to Gascon and pleaded for a restoration of the native dialect. He published a rhymed Gascon translation of the Psalms of David (1565). His glogues go beyond the imitation of classical models, attempting to capture the true flavour of Gascon peasant life.