Edmund William Gosse

“ From 1381 to 1383, while Chaucer was comptroller of customs, Usk was collector, and they were doubtless acquainted. In The Testament of Love, the god is made to praise “mine own true servant, the noble philosophical poet in English,” who had composed " a treatise of my servant Troilus." Usk had at one time been a Lollard, but in prison he submitted to the Church and thought he was forgiven. ”

“ Professor Skeat has shown that the date of his book must be about 1387, for in it he reviews the incidents of his career, including the odd facts that, after his first imprisonment in 1384, he challenged any one who " contraried " his “saws”—that is to say, denied his allegations—to fight, but that no one took up his wager of battle. ”