On 4 March 1801 Godwin wrote a four page proposal after reading a number of pieces by Chaucer. He continued to read Chaucer and on 16 March he has tea with James Marshall who came from Thomas Norton Longman (presumable having left Godwin’s proposal). Longman’s answer came on 19 March and seems to have been negative since Godwin’s Life of Chaucer was published in 1803 by Phillips (to whom Godwin writes on 5 April).