Testament of Love

Thomas Usk, a fourteenth-century bureaucrat and scrivener, is known primarily for his Testament of Love. Likely composed between 1385–1386 after the author was imprisoned for his political alliances, the Testament follows a personified Love descending into Usk’s prison cell and engaging him in an extensive theological discussion. Chief among the protagonist’s complaints is his longing for Margarite, his lady love, though other topics include a quasi-feminist defense of women, the functions of the law, his political discontent, and the nature of free will. In his dream-vision, Usk draws inspiration from Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy, as well as Chaucer and Gower, in his prolific exploration of Christian sentimentality. R. Allen Shoaf presents the first edition since the nineteenth century, provides glosses and notes to render the Middle English text accessible, and rethinks the relationship between Usk and his more famous literary contemporaries—namely, William Langland and Geoffrey Chaucer.