Work Text:
Six Months Later.
RHYS WILLIAMS:
We can no longer ride. Canst thou walk?
GWEN COOPER:
Foolish husband, cease thy scolding.
Enter Captain Jack Harkness.
GWEN COOPER:
Thou couldst not bear to choose a tavern for our meeting, O Captain?
RHYS WILLIAMS:
I curse the cold that freezeth my feet.
CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS:
The railing of the Welsh sounds harshly in my ears
Yet absence hath made thy railing dear.
And the sight of thee is sweet.
GWEN COOPER:
Hast thou fared well on thy journey?
CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS:
I travell'd the land, and found it too small. The whole world is like a graveyard.
GWEN COOPER:
'Tis our hope thou wilt return with us.
CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS:
Nor have I travell'd far enough,
For I am over shoes i' th' mire.
I spy a ship that sails the Ion reefs
Bound for alien shores; it waits upon me.
Anon I desire no more delight
Than to be under sail and gone to-night.
GWEN COOPER:
I bring a prize to aid thee. They found it in the ruins, ever-during as its master, though I have ordered some small repair.
RHYS WILLIAMS:
And it cost me five shillings.
CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS:
Send me the reckoning.
GWEN COOPER:
Wilt thou return?
CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS:
Wherefore?
GWEN COOPER:
For myself.
And no blame be to thou, for otherwise,
All were lost.
CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS:
The truth of it? I slew my daughter's child.
Woe to the hand that shed such costly blood!
He whose loyal service I commanded,
Beloved Ianto, hath died in mine arms;
Preceding him, a multitude of souls,
Scholars, physicians, soldiers I have led,
Their deaths a heavy burden on my wretched heart.
GWEN COOPER:
But in doing, thou hast saved us all.
CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS:
If the world is but a stage, Gwen Cooper,
I played the hero's part, and lik'd it much.
So fond was I, so o'ercome with pride,
I did not see the play becoming strange
And my part become a villain.
Our revels are now ended.
The cloud-capp'd towers, the palaces of state,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
Though I remain. I have lived so many lives;
The time is come to find another one.
GWEN COOPER:
I am full sorry, dear Captain, but thou
Must not abandon us. The coward's part
Was never thine.
CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS:
Mark me.
Exit Harkness.
RHYS WILLIAMS:
I pray thee draw homewards, sweet wife.
GWEN COOPER:
Yes. I'll weep and sigh;
And leaving so his service, must abide.
Exeunt.