The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep: The Friday Quiz: House Arrest Edition

I really wish I had a question about Pervez Musharraf and the definition of "dictator," but as you know, the Friday Quiz is far too torturously nonsensical to ever be useful in a discussion of serious international affairs.

(Still, you gotta love the brass with which the hoary old "Oh, it's for her own safety!" gets trotted out, yet again.)

What writer -- more well-known for other works -- began a volume entitled The History of England from the Reign of Henry the Fourth through the Death of Charles the First, with the following sentence: "Henry the 4th ascended the throne of England much to his own satisfaction in the year 1399 , after having prevailed upon his cousin & predecessor Richard the 2nd to resign it to him, & to retire for the rest of his life to Pomfret Castle, where he happened to be murdered."

First correct answer posted to comments wins a medium-speed Loris equipped with a special all-weather snackbox, gauranteed to keep your mementos mori as fresh as you can make them. No Googling or attempting to sync your Google Calendar with your Palm Desktop by using CompanionLink, unless you've got some stupid ".NET framework 2.0" installed on your machine. 'Cause you'll just wind up crying into your HotSync, let me assure you. One guess per comment but how many comments could a Quiz-player comment if a Quiz-player could, um....comment? (OK, I guess that one didn't work very well. Sorry.)

Comments

Um, Thomas Mallory?

Posted by: art | November 9, 2007 01:47 AM

Um, Thomas A Beckett?

Posted by: art | November 9, 2007 01:48 AM

Bonobo.

Posted by: boxjam | November 9, 2007 09:12 AM

Oh, sorry, I'm still on the question about the mammal with mutant ninja elbows of death, that gives its young superpowers.

Gore Vidal.

Posted by: boxjam | November 9, 2007 09:14 AM

Again, the answer to that one:

http://www.wombatfile.com/2007/11/land_of_the_lost.html#comment-2010

Posted by: BT | November 9, 2007 09:34 AM

Were there pommes frites at Pomfret Castle?

Posted by: shananan | November 9, 2007 10:34 AM

Jane Austen.

Posted by: Scraps | November 9, 2007 10:51 AM

Bang. Scraps is racking up an impressive number of wins for 2007. Austen wrote this tongue-in-cheek history sometime in her youth, mostly to send up what she considered to be ridiculously partisan history books, in which (for example) Yorkist or Lancastrian sympathies largely dictated the presentation of the past.

Posted by: BT | November 9, 2007 10:57 AM

It's weird to have a crush on a woman 200 years older than me.

Oh, well, I can't humiliate myself any more than I already have, missing the thing about the slow loris.

BOXJAM HEARTS JANE AUSTEN!

Posted by: boxjam | November 9, 2007 11:03 AM

Scraps beats me to it! Curse you and your wily east coast ways!

Posted by: gavinedwards | November 9, 2007 11:20 AM

Bob Hope!
You know, when you hit 40, you really start to crumble.

Posted by: bootsy3000 | November 9, 2007 12:05 PM

Speeak-k fer yarselff_ yu old b-booo-t-;,>... ~

Posted by: Jonathan | November 9, 2007 06:06 PM

Anybody tried that new candy yet? MeMentos Mori -- the deathmaker!