Original Broadway Cast, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Patti Cohenour - Out on a Limerick (Rosa Bud) lyrics

Thank God for that!
The sheep has been sheared!
I don’t know how men live
Through heat with a beard
Gladly I shed this tent of a coat
My explanation I now emote:

My motive in taking this role
Of a wigged and white-whiskered soul
Was to ably disguise my most feminine size
When I’d take an enquiring stroll
For strangers who’ll chat with a chap
And reveal this and that in a snap
Are remarkably leery
Of women who query too much
It’s a great handicap

So this disguise saw me through it
Playing the part of a man!
Really there’s nothing much to it -
Most any animal can!
Climbing out on a limerick, out on a limerick
Out on a limerick air!

I found a theatrical kit
And as Datchery, I did my bit
So to clear Neville’s name
(I confess to my shame
‘twas for vengeance as well, I admit)
I followed John Jasper high-low
Found the dens he descends to below
And when Puffer came here
‘twas immediately clear
My suspicions were quite apropos

So I crept to the lodgings of Jasper
Dressed in this garb, what a sight!
There I found my mother’s clasp
The one I gave Edwin that night
Jasper took it from Ned
After hurling him dead
To the weir riverbed, I suppose
"Rosa Bud Datchery" knows!

And the proof is quite clear
Let us bring Jasper here
To be tried and be tied and strung
And from this limerick, let him be hung!