I remember reading a response to this on the Poetry Society noticeboard in London in the early eighties.
Searching for more information on its origins someone had written up 'No answer came the bold reply' which was an idiom or quote used by people when, (obviously), someone didn't answer a question, the kind of line a teacher might use in class...and this had been extended with the following line ' as she waved aloft her wooden leg',I think, saying this was a line used in Music Hall.

I came across your thread while searching for it's origins :)

Richard