This is the third verse of The Ballad of May West.

New York officials, she did vex
She wrote a Broadway play called Sex
They put the cast on trial and shut it down.
They should have known propriety
Is trumped by notoriety
The incident established her renown.

After the night in the Leprechaun Hotel when she became a limericist, Laetitia has written hundreds of limericks.  She has also written lyrics set to public domain tunes that she and her cousins performed at Uncle Milt’s famous parties.  What follows is a set of lyrics she wrote about comedienne, Mae West, set to Antonin Dvorak’s Humoresque No. 7.  With a career that spanned much of the 20th Century, Mae West was a star of film and stage known for her witty repartee.  What follows is Verse 1 of The Ballad of May West.  Although not in limerick form, each verse will appear under the heading of “Limerick” in weekly posts.

The tune is Dvořák’s Humoresque
This is a song about burlesque
A comic style that flourished long ago
And of a woman who had fun
With double meaning and with pun
And battled with the censor’s toe to toe.