Thomas Usk is best known for his participation in political intrigues that led to his execution and for a long prose work, The Testament of Love, once attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer and preserved only in William Thynne's 1532 edition of Chaucer and in later reprints; no manuscripts of the work are known to exist. In certain official documents of the period Usk is referred to as a scrivener, though it is a mistake to identify him simply as a writer of manuscripts. At one time he worked as a confidential agent for one of the more powerful men in London; at another he held office at the direction of the king. In addition, many of the literary allusions that have been found (sometimes too readily) in The Testament of Love, together with the impressive list of antiphons, prayers, and other devotions that the Westminster Chronicle reports that Usk recited...