Original Broadway Cast of The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Out on a Limerick (Neville Landless)
[NEVILLE]
Thank god for that— I gladly unmask!
To wear this coat in June is too great a task
There lies Dick Datchery, born on a whim
We can dispense with last rites for him

My motive in taking this roll
Of a wigged and white-whiskered soul
Was to get myself back
To this city and track
Down the culprit... with that as my goal

I had also intended to find
Just what Jasper had on his mind
Much to eager is he
That all Cloisterham see
Me the murderer — god, are they blind?

All of these people suspicious
That I had killed Edwin Drood
And with their anger so vicious
I wore this costume so crude
Stepping out on a limerick, out of a limerick
Out on a limerick air!

I found a theatrical kit
And as Datchery, I did my bit
So to clear my good name
From the blemish of blame
(‘Twas for Helena, too, 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 in the lodgings of Jasper
Dressed in this garb, what a sight!
There I found Rosa Bud’s clasp, her
Mother's she gave Drood that night
Jasper took it from Ned after hurling him dead
To the weir riverbed, I suppose
Tell him that Datchery knows!

And the proof is quite clear
Let us bring Jasper here
To be tried and the tied up and strung!

And from this limerick, let him be hung!