diff --git a/Tests/svgLib/path/path_test.py b/Tests/svgLib/path/path_test.py
index 0b82193dd..c92ca6801 100644
--- a/Tests/svgLib/path/path_test.py
+++ b/Tests/svgLib/path/path_test.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile
 
 
 SVG_DATA = """\
-<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
 <!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 20010904//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-SVG-20010904/DTD/svg10.dtd">
 <svg version="1.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
@@ -15,7 +15,9 @@ SVG_DATA = """\
 <path d="M 100 100 L 300 100 L 200 300 z"/>
 <path d="M100,200 C100,100 250,100 250,200 S400,300 400,200"/>
 </svg>
-"""
+""".encode(
+    "utf-8"
+)
 
 EXPECTED_PEN_COMMANDS = [
     ("moveTo", ((100.0, 100.0),)),
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 827bbc820..2a56ea8f9 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -16,5 +16,5 @@ pyobjc==10.1; sys_platform == "darwin"
 freetype-py==2.4.0
 uharfbuzz==0.37.3
 glyphsLib==6.6.0 # this is only required to run Tests/varLib/interpolatable_test.py
-lxml==4.9.3
+lxml==5.1.0
 sympy==1.12
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 302e9b765..1d360e030 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ extras_require = {
     # for fontTools.misc.etree and fontTools.misc.plistlib: use lxml to
     # read/write XML files (faster/safer than built-in ElementTree)
     "lxml": [
-        "lxml >= 4.0, < 5",
+        "lxml >= 4.0",
     ],
     # for fontTools.sfnt and fontTools.woff2: to compress/uncompress
     # WOFF 1.0 and WOFF 2.0 webfonts.