The Testament of Love is the only surviving work of
the London tradesman and political figure Thomas
Usk.Usk says at the beginning of the text that it will
be concerned with Philosophy and the Law, both
of which must accord with Love. The allegory in
three books begins with Usk as the speaker, imprisoned,
bemoaning his separation from “Margaret,”
whom he says he has served faithfully for seven
years. He prays to Margaret, who is spoken of as a
woman but eventually is revealed to be the “Pearl of
great price” of Matthew 13, and perhaps an emblem
of divine grace. At this point appears the figure
of Love (the personification of divine love), to
whom Usk describes his involvement in London
politics, apparently to excuse his abandonment of
Northampton. But Love, sounding very much like
BOETHIUS’s Lady Philosophy, convinces him that
earthly fame is transient, and that God is powerful
and merciful. Book 2 deals with grace, and here Usk
rejects LOLLARDY, having become interested in the
heresy, he says, through Northampton. Book 3 is
particularly concerned with the Bethink theme of
free will and predestination, and also includes a
well-known passage praising CHAUCER as the true
servant of Love.
No manuscripts of Usk’s Testament are extant.
The text survives only in William Thayne’s 1532
printed edition of the works of Chaucer. For several
hundred years the work was attributed to Chaucer,
until the great 19th-century scholar Walter Skeat
found that the first letters of each section of the
poem form the acrostic MARGARET OF VIRTU HAVE
MERCI ON THIN USK (that is, “Thine Usk”). The work
does owe a great deal to Chaucer, borrowing from
TROILUS AND CRISEYDE and from The HOUSE OF
FAME, and possibly from his translation of
Boethius’s Consolation. Usk also seems to have
made use of the C-text ofWilliam LANGLAND’s PIERS
PLOWMAN, as well as a treatise on free will and providence
by St. ANSELM. Usk’s Testament is an important
example of 14th-century English prose, and
while it has some particularly effective passages,
others are quite obscure for modern readers.