PASSERAT, Jean (1534-1602), a poet of merit and a contributor to the Satire Ménippée, was born at Paris in 1534. He was well educated, but is said to have played truant from school and to have had some curious adventures—at one time working in a mine. He was, however, a scholar by natural taste, and after a time he returned to his studies. Having finished them he became in his turn a teacher at the Collège de Plessis, and at the death of Ramus was made professor of Latin in the Collège de France. This, however, was not till 1572. In the meanwhile Passerat had studied law, and had composed much agreeable poetry in the Pléiade style, the best pieces being his short ode “On the First of May,” and the charming villaneUe “J’ai perdu ma tourterelle.” Like most of the men of letters and learning at the time, Passerat belonged to the politiques or moderate royalist party, and was strongly opposed to the League. His exact share in the Ménippée, the great manifesto of the politique party when it had declared itself for Henry of Navarre, is differently stated; but it is agreed that he wrote most of the verse, and the charming harangue of the guerilla chief Rieux is sometimes attributed to him. Towards the end of his life, after he had re-entered on the duties of his professorship, he became blind. He died at Paris in 1602, and his poems were not published completely till four years later. Passerat united with his learning abundant wit and a faculty of elegant and tender verse, and was altogether a good specimen of the man of letters of the time, free from pedantry while full of scholarship, and combining a healthy interest, in politics and a taste for light literature with serious accomplishments. He had also a considerable reputation as an orator.