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Der seltsame Fall des Dr. Jekyll und Mr. Hyde
→Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson

-I-

Der Rechtsanwalt Utterson hatte ein strenges, von tiefen Falten durchfurchtes Gesicht, das nie durch ein Lächeln erheitert wurde, kalt, kurz und verlegen in seiner Unterhaltung, zurückhaltend im Ausdruck seiner Gefühle; lang, dürr und schwermütig war er – und doch konnte man nicht umhin, den Mann lieb zu haben.
→Mr Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable.

Unter alten Freunden, nach einem guten Diner, wenn der Wein ihm besonders schmeckte, strahlte etwas unbeschreiblich Liebevolles aus seinen Augen, etwas, dem er in seiner Rede nie Ausdruck zu geben vermochte, aber das sich oft und laut in seinen Handlungen aussprach.
→At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye; something indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which spoke not only in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but more often and loudly in the acts of his life.

Er war streng mit sich selbst; wenn er allein war, trank er gewöhnlichen Gin, um seine Vorliebe für gute Weine abzutöten. Er war ein großer Verehrer des Dramas, doch hatte er seit zwanzig Jahren kein Theater besucht.
→He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years.

Er hatte aber grundsätzlich eine große Duldsamkeit für die Schwächen anderer; er schien fast mit Neid das Ueberfließen von Temperament zu bewundern, das die Ursache ihrer Untaten war, und in allen Fällen war er geneigt, lieber zu helfen, als zu tadeln.
→But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove.

»Ich folge Kains gottloser Ketzerei,« pflegte er in seiner eigentümlichen Weise zu sagen,»
→‘I incline to Cain’s heresy,’¹ he used to say quaintly:

und lasse meinen Bruder seinen eigenen Weg zum Teufel gehen.«
→‘I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.’

Daher kam es denn auch häufig, daß er die letzte und einzige anständige Bekanntschaft von verkommenen Menschen war;
→In this character, it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of down-going men.

und diesen gegenüber bezeigte er, wenn sie ihn besuchten, auch nie die geringste Veränderung in seinem Wesen.
→And to such as these, so long as they came about his chambers, he never marked a shade of change in his demeanour.

–Dies konnte übrigens Herrn Utterson nicht schwer fallen, da er ja überhaupt sehr zurückhaltend war; selbst seine Freunde schienen nach dem Prinzip der allgemeinen Nachsicht gewählt zu sein.
→No doubt the feat was easy to Mr Utterson; for he was undemonstrative at the best, and even his friendships seemed to be founded in a similar catholicity of good-nature.

Es waren dies hauptsächlich Verwandte, oder Leute, die er viele Jahre gekannt hatte; seine Zuneigung war eine Frucht der Zeit, nicht einer besonderen Seelenverwandtschaft.
→It is the mark of a modest man to accept his friendly circle ready-made from the hands of opportunity; and that was the lawyer’s way.

Eine solche Freundschaft verband ihn seit Jahren mit seinem entfernten und jüngeren Verwandten, Richard Enfield, einem Lebemann im besten Sinne des Wortes.
→His friends were those of his own blood or those whom he had known the longest; his affections, like ivy, were the growth of time, they implied no aptness in the object. Hence, no doubt, the bond that united him to Mr Richard Enfield, his distant kinsman, the well-known man about town.

Es war für viele ein unerklärliches Rätsel, was diese beiden miteinander gemein haben konnten.
→It was a nut to crack for many, what these two could see in each other or what subject they could find in common.

Man begegnete ihnen häufig auf ihren Sonntagsspaziergängen, und es fiel jedem auf, daß sie nie miteinander sprachen, daß sie ganz besonders trostlos und gelangweilt aussahen, und daß beide mit unverkennbarer Erleichterung das zufällige Begegnen eines Freundes begrüßten.
→ It was reported by those who encountered them in their Sunday walks, that they said nothing, looked singularly dull, and would hail with obvious relief the appearance of a friend.

Trotzdem hielten die beiden Männer sehr viel auf diese Spaziergänge, die sie als das größte Vergnügen der ganzen Woche betrachteten, und denen sie andere Zerstreuungen und sogar geschäftliche Angelegenheiten gern opferten.
→For all that, the two men put the greatest store by these excursions, counted them the chief jewel of each week, and not only set aside occasions of pleasure, but even resisted the calls of business, that they might enjoy them uninterrupted.

Eines Tages kamen sie auf einer dieser Wanderungen durch eine kleine Nebenstraße in einem sehr lebhaften Viertel der Stadt, in welcher während der Wochentage rege Geschäfte betrieben wurden.
→It chanced on one of these rambles that their way led them down a by street in a busy quarter of London. The street was small and what is called quiet, but it drove a thriving trade on the weekdays.

Die Bewohner schienen alle wohlhabende Leute zu sein. Die Schaufenster der Läden waren geschmackvoll, man möchte sagen kokett hergerichtet und schienen die Vorübergehenden wie lächelnde Ladenmädchen zum Kauf aufzufordern.
→The inhabitants were all doing well, it seemed, and all emulously hoping to do better still, and laying out the surplus of their gains in coquetry; so that the shop fronts stood along that thoroughfare with an air of invitation, like rows of smiling saleswomen.

Selbst Sonntags, wenn der Prunk der Ladenfenster verhüllt, und die Straße verhältnismäßig ruhig war, glänzte sie im Vergleich mit der unsauberen Umgebung wie ein Feuer im Walde.
→Even on Sunday, when it veiled its more florid charms and lay comparatively empty of passage, the street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a forest;

Die neu gemalten Türen und Fensterrahmen, die glänzend polierten Messingknöpfe und Klinken der Haustüren, die allgemeine Reinlichkeit und Freundlichkeit mußten jedermann anziehen und gefallen.
→ and with its freshly painted shutters, well-polished brasses, and general cleanliness and gaiety of note, instantly caught and pleased the eye of the passenger.

Zwei Häuser weit von der linken Ecke wurde diese Reihe von hübschen Häusern durch eine Sackgasse unterbrochen.
→Two doors from one corner, on the left hand going east, the line was broken by the entry of a court; and just at that point,

Gerade an dieser Stelle stand ein unheimlich aussehendes Gebäude, das seinen Giebel frech und drohend in die Straße hinausstreckte.
→a certain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the street.

Es war ein niedriges Haus, ohne Fenster. Die schmutzigen Mauern, die enge Tür, an der Wind und Wetter die Oelfarbe größtenteils abgebröckelt hatten,
→It was two storeys high; showed no window, nothing but a door on the lower storey and a blind forehead of discoloured wall on the upper;

und die weder Klingel noch Klinke zeigte, waren Zeugen langer, knausriger Vernachlässigung.
→and bore in every feature, the marks of prolonged and sordid negligence. The door which was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, was blistered and distained.

Bettler und Vagabunden fanden in der Vertiefung ein Obdach gegen Regen und Sturm;
→Tramps slouched into the recess and struck matches on the panels; children kept shop upon the steps;

die Schuljungen hatten ihre Namen mit allerlei Verzierungen in die Felder der Tür geschnitten; niemand in der Straße erinnerte sich, dieselbe je offen gesehen zu haben.
→the schoolboy had tried his knife on the mouldings; and for close on a generation, no one had appeared to drive away these random visitors or to repair their ravages.

Herr Enfield und der Advokat gingen auf der rechten Seite der Straße.
→Mr Enfield and the lawyer were on the other side of the bystreet;

Als sie gerade der unheimlichen Tür gegenüber waren, deutete der erstere mit seinem Spazierstock auf dieselbe.
→but when they came abreast of the entry, the former lifted up his cane and pointed.

»Hast du jemals diese Tür bemerkt?« fragte er seinen Freund, und als dieser eine bejahende Bewegung machte, fuhr er fort:
→‘Did you ever remark that door?’ he asked; and when his companion had replied in the affirmative,

»Ich habe einmal eine ganz seltsame Geschichte hier erlebt.«
→‘it is connected in my mind,’ added he, ‘with a very odd story.’

»Wirklich?« sagte Utterson mit einer kaum bemerkbaren Veränderung der Stimme.
→‘Indeed?’ said Mr Utterson, with a slight change of voice,

»Was war es denn?«
→ ‘and what was that?’

»An einem kalten, dunklen Wintermorgen, – es mochte vielleicht drei Uhr sein – führte mich mein Heimweg von einem entfernten Stadtteile durch ein Labyrinth von engen Straßen, in denen absolut weiter nichts zu sehen war, als die Laternen.
→‘Well, it was this way,’ returned Mr Enfield: ‘I was coming home from some place at the end of the world, about three o’clock of a black winter morning, and my way lay through a part of town where there was literally nothing to be seen but lamps.

Ich durchwanderte eine Straße nach der anderen, alle hell erleuchtet, als ob man eine Prozession erwartete, aber leer wie eine Kirche.
→Street after street, and all the folks asleep – street after street, all lighted up as if for a procession and all as empty as a church Ich wurde ganz nervös; ich horchte und horchte – kein Laut. Ich hätte alles darum gegeben, wenn ich nur einen Polizisten gesehen hätte!
→– till at last I got into that state of mind when a man listens and listens and begins to long for the sight of a policeman.

Plötzlich bemerkte ich nicht weit von mir zwei Gestalten: einen kleinen Mann, der schnellen Schrittes nach dem östlichen Teile der Stadt ging,
→All at once, I saw two figures: one a little man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk,

und ein kleines Mädchen von acht bis zehn Jahren, das, so schnell es konnte, eine der Querstraßen hinablief.
→and the other a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a cross street.

An der Ecke stießen die beiden heftig gegeneinander;
→Well, sir, the two ran into one another naturally enough at the corner;

und nun kommt das Gräßliche der Geschichte: der Mann trampelte ruhig über den Körper des hingefallenen Kindes hinweg, ohne sich im geringsten um das Geschrei desselben zu bekümmern.
→ and then came the horrible part of the thing; for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground.

Das scheint gar nicht so schlimm, wenn man es so hört, aber, ich versichere dich, es war grauenhaft mit anzusehen, es lag etwas Dämonisches, unbeschreiblich Brutales darin.
→It sounds nothing to hear, but it was hellish to see. It wasn’t like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut.

I gave a view halloa, took to my heels, collared my gentleman, and brought him back to where there was already quite a group about the screaming child.
→Ich lief dem Kerl nach, der sich indes durchaus nicht zu beeilen schien. Ich hielt ihn beim Kragen und führte ihn dahin zurück, wo das Kind lag, um das sich auch bereits eine kleine Gruppe von Menschen gebildet hatte.
→He was perfectly cool and made no resistance, but gave me one look, so ugly that it brought out the sweat on me like running.

Es waren die Angehörigen des kleinen Mädchens, und ziemlich bald erschien auch ein Arzt, zu dem das Kind vorhin geschickt worden war.
→The people who had turned out were the girl’s own family; and pretty soon, the doctor, for whom she had been sent, put in his appearance.

Er erklärte, das Kind sei nicht verletzt; der ausgestandene Schreck und die Furcht seien das Schlimmste, was ihm zugestoßen wäre.
→ Well, the child was not much the worse, more frightened, according to the Sawbones; and there you might have supposed would be an end to it.

Damit war aber die Geschichte noch nicht vorbei. Der Täter war vollständig gefaßt und leistete nicht den geringsten Widerstand;
→ Well, the child was not much the worse, more frightened, according to the Sawbones; and there you might have supposed would be an end to it.

aber mich sah er an, mit einem Blick so teuflisch, so gehässig, daß mir der kalte Schweiß auf die Stirne trat. Vom ersten Augenblick an flößte er mir ein Gefühl von Grauen ein, wie ich es noch nie empfunden. Er machte selbstverständlich denselben Eindruck auf die Familie des Kindes.
→But there was one curious circumstance. I had taken a loathing to my gentleman at first sight. So had the child’s family, which was only natural.

Was mir jedoch am meisten auffiel, war das sonderbare Benehmen des Doktors.
→But the doctor’s case was what struck me.

Es war einer von jenen alltäglichen, unbekannten Aerzten, wie man sie zu Hunderten in den großen Städten findet. Er sprach mit einem starken schottischen Akzent und schien ungefähr ebensoviel Gefühl zu besitzen, wie eine Sphinx.
→ He was the usual cut and dry apothecary, of no particular age and colour, with a strong Edinburgh accent, and about as emotional as a bagpipe.

Aber so oft er unseren Gefangenen ansah, nahm sein Gesicht einen Ausdruck an, als wollte er dem Kerl an die Kehle springen und ihn erwürgen. Ich wußte, was in ihm vorging; und er wußte, was ich empfand. Wir konnten den Elenden nicht totschlagen, aber wir wollten ihn doch bestrafen.
→ Well, sir, he was like the rest of us; every time he looked at my prisoner, I saw that Sawbones turn sick and white with the desire to kill him. I knew what was in his mind, just as he knew what was in mine; and killing being out of the question, we did the next best.

Wir sagten ihm, wir würden die Geschichte durch die ganze Stadt bekannt machen, so daß er sich nicht mehr vor anständigen Leuten sehen lassen könne.
→We told the man we could and would make such a scandal out of this, as should make his name stink from one end of London to the other.

Wenn er irgend welche Freunde besäße, wenn ihm irgend jemand bisher Vertrauen geschenkt hätte, so würden wir schon dafür sorgen, daß er all dieses einbüßen sollte.
→If he had any friends or any credit, we undertook that he should lose them.

Ich hatte die größte Mühe, die Weiber, die sich unterdessen versammelt hatten, von ihm fernzuhalten – sie rasten gegen ihn wie Furien.
→And all the time, as we were pitching it in red hot, we were keeping the women off him as best we could, for they were as wild as harpies.

In meinem Leben habe ich nie Gesichter so voll von Haß und Abscheu gesehen.
→ I never saw a circle of such hateful faces; Und der Mann stand in der Mitte: ruhig, finster und höhnisch. Es war ihm wohl auch bange, das konnte ich merken, aber er zeigte es nicht;
→ and there was the man in the middle, with a kind of black, sneering coolness – frightened too, I could see that

er stand da, kalt und trotzig wie ein Satan.
→ – but carrying it off, sir, really like Satan.

»Wenn ihr Geld aus diesem Unfall schlagen wollt,« sagte er endlich, »so fordert! Ich muß tun, was ihr verlangt.
→ ‘‘If you choose to make capital out of this accident,’’ said he, ‘‘I am naturally helpless.

Als Gentleman wünsche ich jeden öffentlichen Skandal zu vermeiden, also nennt die Summe!«
→No gentleman but wishes to avoid a scene,’’ says he. ‘‘Name your figure.’’

Wir verlangten hundert Pfund Sterling zum Besten der armen Familie.
→ Well, we screwed him up to a hundred pounds for the child’s family;

Anfangs schien es, als wollte er sich sträuben, aber er mochte uns wohl ansehen, daß wir Ernst machten und nicht mit uns handeln ließen.
→he would have clearly liked to stick out; but there was something about the lot of us that meant mischief, and at last he struck.

Wie sollten wir indessen das Geld bekommen? Was glaubst du, was nun geschah?
→ The next thing was to get the money; and where do you think he carried us but to that place with the door?

Er führte uns dort vor jene Tür,

nahm einen Schlüssel aus der Tasche, öffnete sie und verschwand. Nach wenigen Minuten kam er zurück mit zehn Pfund in Gold und einem Scheck auf Coutts, mit einer Unterschrift versehen,
→– whipped out a key, went in, and presently came back with the matter of ten pounds in gold and a cheque for the balance on Coutts’s, drawn payable to bearer

die mich in unbeschreibliches Erstaunen versetzte. Ich kann dir den Namen nicht nennen, obgleich dies wohl das seltsamste an der Geschichte ist. Ich will dir nur sagen, daß es ein Name ist, den man oft hört und oft liest. Ich will dir nur sagen, daß es ein Name ist, den man oft hört und oft liest.
→and signed with a name that I can’t mention, though it’s one of the points of my story, but it was a name at least very well known and often printed.

Der Betrag des Schecks war ziemlich hoch, aber die Unterschrift – ihre Echtheit vorausgesetzt – war gut selbst für einen weit höheren Betrag.
→The figure was stiff; but the signature was good for more than that, if it was only genuine.

Ich erlaubte mir, diesem merkwürdigen Herrn anzudeuten, im gewöhnlichen Leben käme es nicht gerade alle Tage vor, daß ein Mann um vier Uhr morgens in einem Keller verschwinde und wenige Minuten darauf mit einem Scheck, von einem andern unterschrieben, erscheine.
→I took the liberty of pointing out to my gentleman that the whole business looked apocryphal, and that a man does not, in real life, walk into a cellar door at four in the morning and come out of it with another man’s cheque for close upon a hundred pounds.

Er blieb kalt und höhnisch wie zuvor.
→But he was quite easy and sneering. »Beunruhigen Sie sich nicht,« sagte er, »ich werde bei Ihnen bleiben, bis die Bank geöffnet wird, und bei der Einlösung des Schecks zugegen sein.«
→‘‘Set your mind at rest,’’ says he, ‘‘I will stay with you till the banks open and cash the cheque myself.’’

Wir waren damit zufrieden. Der Doktor, der Vater des Kindes, der Uebeltäter selbst und ich gingen nach meiner Wohnung, wo wir bis zum Morgen warteten. Nach dem Frühstück gingen wir miteinander nach der Bank.
→ » Nous nous en allâmes donc tous, le docteur, le père de l’enfant, notre homme et moi, passer le reste de la nuit dans mon appartement ; et le matin venu, après avoir déjeuné, nous nous rendîmes en choeur à la banque.

Ich händigte selbst den Scheck ein, unterließ es jedoch nicht, zu bemerken, daß ich alle Ursache habe, zu vermuten, daß die Unterschrift gefälscht sei. Wir hatten uns alle geirrt, der Scheck war gut und wurde bezahlt.«
→ I gave in the cheque myself, and said I had every reason to believe it was a forgery. Not a bit of it. The cheque was genuine.’

»Wirklich?« sagte Herr Utterson.
→‘Tut-tut,’ said Mr Utterson.

»Du denkst darüber wie ich,« sagte Enfield, »es ist eine böse Geschichte.
→‘I see you feel as I do,’ said Mr Enfield. ‘Yes, it’s a bad story.

Niemand sollte mit einem solchen Schurken etwas zu tun haben. Und der Mann, der den Scheck gezogen hat, bekleidet eine hohe gesellschaftliche Stellung, ist eine Berühmtheit in seinem Fache und, was das schlimmste ist, gilt für einen von jenen Herren, von denen man sagt, daß sie ›viel Gutes‹ tun.
→For my man was a fellow that nobody could have to do with, a really damnable man; and the person that drew the cheque is the very pink of the proprieties, celebrated too, and (what makes it worse) one of your fellows who do what they call good.

Doch es ist vielleicht die alte Geschichte: Gelderpressung! Ein anständiger Mann, der jetzt für eine kleine Jugendsünde teuer bezahlen muß;
→Blackmail, I suppose; an honest man paying through the nose for some of the capers of his youth. Blackmail House is what I call that place with the door, in consequence.

obgleich selbst diese Annahme noch lange nicht alles aufklärt.« Nach diesen Worten verfiel Herr Enfield in ein tiefes Nachdenken.
→Though even that, you know, is far from explaining all,’ he added, and with the words fell into a vein of musing.

Aus diesem wurde er von Utterson erweckt, der in etwas hastiger Weise fragte: »Weißt du vielleicht, ob der Mann, der den Scheck unterschrieben hat, dort wohnt?«
→From this he was recalled by Mr Utterson asking rather suddenly: ‘And you don’t know if the drawer of the cheque lives there?’

»Das ist nicht sehr wahrscheinlich,« sagte Herr Enfield, »aber ich habe mir seine Adresse gemerkt, er wohnt in einem der großen Squares.«
→‘A likely place isn’t it?’ returned Mr Enfield. ‘But I happen to have noticed his address; he lives in some square or other.’

»Und hast du jemals irgend welche Erkundigungen über ... jenes rätselhafte Haus eingezogen?« fragte Herr Utterson. »Nein, Utterson,« war die Antwort.
→‘And you never asked about – the place with the door?’ said Mr Utterson. ‘No, sir: I had a delicacy,’ was the reply.

»Ich hatte eine unerklärliche Abneigung, tiefer in die Geschichte einzudringen. Ueberhaupt, ich stöbere nicht gern in anderer Leute Angelegenheiten. Versuche es nur einmal, ein Geheimnis ans Tageslicht zu bringen. Wer eine Frage stellt, der schleudert sozusagen einen Stein, man weiß nicht, wo er hinfliegt und wen er trifft.
→‘I feel very strongly about putting questions; it partakes too much of the style of the day of judgment. You start a question, and it’s like starting a stone.

Man sitzt ruhig auf einem Hügel, stößt einen Stein mit dem Fuße herab – er rollt und rollt, nimmt andere Steine mit sich und trifft jemand, an den man gar nicht gedacht hat, und eine Familie ist entehrt.
→You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stones goes, starting others; and presently some bland old bird (the last you would have thought of ) is knocked on the head in his own back garden and the family have to change their name.

Nein, Utterson, ich habe es mir zum Grundsatz gemacht: Je verdächtiger und seltsamer mir eine Geschichte erscheint, desto weniger bekümmere ich mich darum.«
→ No, sir, I make it a rule of mine: the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.’

»Ein ausgezeichneter Grundsatz, Enfield,« sagte der Advokat.
→‘A very good rule, too,’ said the lawyer.

»Ich habe mir aber selber das Haus und die Umgebung genau angesehen,« fuhr Herr Enfield fort.
→‘But I have studied the place for myself,’ continued Mr Enfield.

»Man kann es kaum ein Haus nennen. Es hat nur die eine Tür, und die wird sehr selten geöffnet. Niemand geht ein und aus mit Ausnahme des unheimlichen Helden meines nächtlichen Abenteuers.
→‘It seems scarcely a house. There is no other door, and nobody goes in or out of that one but, once in a great while, the gentleman of my adventure.

Hinten sind drei Fenster im ersten Stock, die nach dem Hofe gehen. Sie sind stets geschlossen, aber reinlich gehalten.
→ There are three windows looking on the court on the first floor; none below. The windows are always shut but they’re clean.

Ich sehe auch häufig Rauch aus dem Schornstein steigen, es muß also jemand dort wohnen.
→And then there is a chimney which is generally smoking; so somebody must live there.

Ich bin jedoch meiner Sache nicht ganz sicher, denn die Häuser sind so dicht aneinander gedrängt, daß es schwer zu sagen ist, wo das eine aufhört und das andere anfängt.«
→And yet it’s not so sure; for the buildings are so packed together about that court, that it’s hard to say where one ends and another begins.’

Die Freunde gingen eine Zeitlang stillschweigend weiter. »Enfield,« sagte Herr Utterson plötzlich, »das ist ein ausgezeichneter Grundsatz.«
→The pair walked on again for a while in silence; and then ‘Enfield,’ said Mr Utterson, ‘that’s a good rule of yours.’

»Ja, ich glaube es auch,« erwiderte Enfield. »Doch,« fuhr der Advokat fort, »möchte ich eine Frage an dich stellen:
→‘Yes, I think it is,’ returned Enfield. ‘And for all that,’ continued the lawyer, ‘there’s one point I want to ask:

Wie heißt der Mann, der das kleine Mädchen niedergetreten hat?«
→I want to ask the name of that man who walked over the child.’

»Ich sehe keinen Grund,« sagte Enfield, »dir das zu verheimlichen; sein Name ist Hyde.«
→‘Well,’ said Mr Enfield, ‘I can’t see what harm it would do. It was a man of the name of Hyde.’

»Hm,« sagte Herr Utterson. »Wie sieht er denn aus?«
→‘Hm,’ said Mr Utterson. ‘What sort of a man is he to see?’

»Das ist wirklich schwer zu beschreiben. Es ist etwas ganz Befremdliches in seiner Erscheinung – etwas Unheimliches, Furchtbares.
→‘He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable.

Er muß verwachsen sein – wenigstens macht er den Eindruck – man kann aber nicht sehen, wo.
→I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why.

Er ist ein merkwürdig aussehender Mensch, und doch kann ich dir nicht sagen, was mir an ihm auffällt.
→He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn’t specify the point.

Es ist eine verkehrte Geschichte von Anfang bis zu Ende.
→He’s an extraordinary-looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. No, sir; I can make no hand of it;

Ich kann ihn dir nicht beschreiben, und doch sehe ich ihn diesen Augenblick deutlich vor mir.«
→I can’t describe him. And it’s not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment.’

Herr Utterson ging wieder eine Zeitlang stillschweigend dahin, augenscheinlich in tiefes Nachdenken versunken.
→Mr Utterson again walked some way in silence and obviously under a weight of consideration.

»Du bist also ganz sicher,« sagte er endlich, »daß der Mann einen Schlüssel hatte?«
→‘You are sure he used a key?’ he inquired at last.

»Mein liebster Utterson,« begann Enfield fast ärgerlich.
→‘My dear sir . . .’ began Enfield, surprised out of himself.

»Ja, ja,« unterbrach ihn Utterson, »ich kann mir wohl denken, daß dir meine Fragen seltsam erscheinen.
→‘Yes, I know,’ said Utterson; ‘I know it must seem strange.

Siehst du, Richard, ich frage dich eben nicht nach dem Namen desjenigen, der den Scheck unterschrieben hat, weil ich diesen Namen schon kenne.
→ You see, Richard, your tale has gone home. If you have been inexact in my point, you had better correct it.’

Die Geschichte hat mich mehr betroffen, als du glaubst;
→The fact is, if I do not ask you the name of the other party, it is because I know it already.

und deshalb bitte ich dich, wenn du in irgend einem Punkte deiner Erzählung nicht ganz genau gewesen bist, so laß es mich jetzt wissen.«
→If you have been inexact in my point, you had better correct it.’

»Du hättest mir das vorher sagen sollen,« sagte der andere verstimmt.
→‘I think you might have warned me,’ returned the other with a touch of sullenness.

»Ich weiß jedoch, daß ich dir alles mit ziemlicher Genauigkeit erzählt habe.
→‘But I have been pedantically exact, as you call it.

Der Kerl hatte einen Schlüssel und hat ihn heute noch. Ich habe erst vor einigen Tagen gesehen, wie er die Tür aufschloß.«
→The fellow had a key; and what’s more, he has it still. I saw him use it, not a week ago.’

Herr Utterson seufzte tief, sagte aber kein Wort.
→Mr Utterson sighed deeply but said never a word;

»Ich habe heute wieder eine Lektion erhalten,« sagte Enfield.
→ ‘Here is another lesson to say nothing,’ said he.

»Ich schäme mich fast meiner Schwätzerei. Utterson, wir wollen uns vornehmen, nie wieder von dieser Geschichte zu sprechen.«
→‘I am ashamed of my long tongue. Let us make a bargain never to refer to this again.’

»Nie wieder,« sagte Utterson. Sie reichten sich die Hände, und dann trennten sie sich.
→‘With all my heart,’ said the lawyer. ‘I shake hands on that, Richard.’

II.



An jenem Abend kehrte Herr Utterson in einer sehr ernsten, trüben Stimmung in seine Junggesellenwohnung zurück. Er setzte sich zu Tisch, hatte jedoch keinen Appetit.
→That evening, Mr Utterson came home to his bachelor house in sombre spirits and sat down to dinner without relish.

Gewöhnlich verbrachte er den Sonntagabend mit der Lektüre irgend eines trockenen theologischen Werkes, bis die benachbarte Kirchenuhr zwölf schlug; dann legte er sich ruhig schlafen.
→It was his custom of a Sunday, when this meal was over, to sit close by the fire, a volume of some dry divinity on his reading desk, until the clock of the neighbouring church rang out the hour of twelve, when he would go soberly and gratefully to bed.

An diesem Abend war es aber anders. Sobald der Tisch abgedeckt war, erhob er sich, nahm ein Licht und ging in seine Arbeitsstube.
→On this night, however, as soon as the cloth was taken away, he took up a candle and went into his business room.

Dort öffnete er einen eisernen Schrank und nahm aus einer kleinen Schublade ein Dokument, auf dessen Umschlag geschrieben stand: »Doktor Jekylls Testament«.
→There he opened his safe, took from the most private part of it a document endorsed on the envelope as Dr Jekyll’s Will,

Mit tief gefalteter Stirn setzte er sich hin und las es aufmerksam durch.
→and sat down with a clouded brow to study its contents.

Das Testament war von des Erblassers eigener Hand geschrieben; denn Herr Utterson, obgleich er es in Verwahrung genommen, hatte sich auf das bestimmteste geweigert, bei der Aussetzung desselben behilflich zu sein.
→The will was holograph, for Mr Utterson, though he took charge of it now that it was made, had refused to lend the least assistance in the making of it;

Das Testament bestimmte, daß nach dem Tode von Henry Jekyll, Dr. phil., Dr. med. usw. nicht nur sein ganzes Besitztum seinem »Freunde und Wohltäter Herrn Edward Hyde«
→it provided not only that, in case of the decease of Henry Jekyll, MD, DCL, LLD, FRS, &c.,¹ all his possessions were to pass into the hands of his ‘friend and benefactor Edward Hyde’,

sondern auch, daß, falls Doktor Jekyll auf unerklärliche Weise verschwinden oder länger als drei Monate von seinem Hause abwesend sein würde, der genannte Edward Hyde von dein Vermögen Besitz nehmen solle,
→, but that in case of Dr Jekyll’s ‘disappearance or unexplained absence for any period exceeding three calendar months’, the said Edward Hyde should step into the said Henry Jekyll’s shoes

und zwar »ohne jedwede Verhinderung, Belästigung oder Verpflichtung« außer der Zahlung einiger kleiner Beträge an die Dienerschaft des Doktor Jekyll.
→without further delay and free from any burden or obligation, beyond the payment of a few small sums to the members of the doctor’s household.

Dieses Testament war Utterson längst ein Dorn im Auge gewesen.
→This document had long been the lawyer’s eyesore.

Es widerstrebte nicht nur seinem Rechtsgefühl als Advokat, sondern auch seinem gesunden Menschenverstand, dem alles Seltsame, Grillenhafte als etwas Unrechtes erschien.
→ It offended him both as a lawyer and as a lover of the sane and customary sides of life, to whom the fanciful was the immodest.

Bis jetzt war es die vollständige Unkenntnis von allem, was diesen Edward Hyde betraf, gewesen, die seine Entrüstung hervorgerufen – jetzt kannte er den Mann.
→And hitherto it was his ignorance of Mr Hyde that had swelled his indignation; now, by a sudden turn, it was his knowledge.

It was already bad enough when the name was but a name of which he could learn no more.
→Schlimm genug schon war es gewesen, als dieser Mann für ihn eben nur ein Name war, bei dem er sich nichts Besonderes vorstellen konnte.

It was worse when it began to be clothed upon with detestable attributes;
→Nun aber war mit diesem Namen eine niederträchtige Handlung verbunden.

and out of the shifting, insubstantial mists that had so long baffled his eye, there leaped up the sudden, definite presentment of a fiend.
→Aus dem schwankenden, dunklen Nebel, der dieses Wesen bis jetzt umschleiert hatte, sprang plötzlich die Gestalt eines Teufels hervor.

‘I thought it was madness,’ he said, as he replaced the obnoxious paper in the safe, ‘and now I begin to fear it is disgrace.’
→»Ich glaubte erst, es wäre Wahnsinn,« sagte er, als er das verhaßte Schriftstück in den Schrank zurücklegte, »jetzt fürchte ich, es ist eine Schandtat.«

With that he blew out his candle, put on a great coat and set forth in the direction of Cavendish Square, that citadel of medicine, where his friend, the great Dr Lanyon, had his house and received his crowding patients.
→Gleich darauf zog er seinen Ueberrock an und ging nach Cavendish Square, wo sein Freund, der berühmte Doktor Lanyon wohnte.

‘If anyone knows, it will be Lanyon,’ he had thought.
→»Wenn irgend einer mir Auskunft geben kann, so ist es Lanyon,« sagte er sich.

The solemn butler knew and welcomed him; he was subjected to no stage of delay, but ushered direct from the door to the dining room where Dr Lanyon sat alone over his wine.
→Der alte, vornehm und feierlich aussehende Diener des großen Arztes empfing ihn mit üblicher Höflichkeit und Würde und führte ihn in das Speisezimmer, wo Doktor Lanyon nach dem Essen allein bei seinem Glase Portwein saß.

This was a hearty, healthy, dapper, red-faced gentleman, with a shock of hair prematurely white.
→Lanyon war ein kleiner, kräftiger, flinker ältlicher Herr, mit blühender Gesichtsfarbe

At sight of Mr Utterson, he sprang up from his chair and welcomed him with both hands.
→Sobald Utterson in das Zimmer trat, sprang der Arzt auf, hielt ihm beide Hände entgegen und hieß ihn auf das herzlichste willkommen.

The geniality, as was the way of the man, was somewhat theatrical to the eye; but it reposed on genuine feeling.
→Für Fremde hatte diese überfließende Freundlichkeit etwas Theatralisches an sich, aber sie beruhte in diesem Falle wirklich auf einer tieferen Empfindung.

For these two were old friends, old mates both at school and college, both thorough respecters of themselves and of each other, and, what does not always follow, men who thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company.
→Die beiden waren alte Freunde von der Schule und Universität her, sie hegten die größte Achtung voreinander und – was sonst selbst unter diesen Umständen nicht immer der Fall ist – sie fanden großes Vergnügen darin, oft und lange zusammen zu sein.

After a little rambling talk, the lawyer led up to the subject which so disagreeably preoccupied his mind.
→Nach einigen Worten über alltägliche Sachen brachte der Advokat die Unterhaltung auf den Gegenstand, der vor allem seine Gedanken beherrschte.

‘I suppose, Lanyon,’ said he, ‘you and I must be the two oldest friends that Henry Jekyll has?’‘I wish the friends were younger,’ chuckled Dr Lanyon.
→»Ich möchte, die Freunde wären ein bißchen jünger,« erwiderte Lanyon lächelnd, »ja, ich glaube, wir sind seine ältesten Freunde.

‘But I suppose we are. And what of that? I see little of him now.’


→Aber was bringt dich darauf? Ich habe ihn seit längerer Zeit nur selten gesehen.«

‘Indeed?’ said Utterson. ‘I thought you had a bond of common interest.’
→»In der Tat?« sagte Utterson. »Ich glaubte, eure gemeinschaftlichen Interessen brächten euch häufig zusammen.«

He began to go wrong, wrong in mind; and though of course I continue to take an interest in him for old sake’s sake as they say, I see and I have seen devilish little of the man.
→»Früher war dies wohl der Fall,« sagte Lanyon. »Aber ich will dir offen gestehen, Utterson, während der letzten Jahre ist mir Jekylls ganze Art und Weise ein Rätsel gewesen.

Such unscientific balderdash,’ added the doctor, flushing suddenly purple, ‘would have estranged Damon and Pythias.’
→Seine verkehrten Ansichten über wissenschaftliche Dinge würden allein genügen, um Dämon und Phintias zu verfeinden.«

This little spirt of temper was somewhat of a relief to Mr Utterson.
→Utterson fühlte sich etwas erleichtert.

‘They have only differed on some point of science,’ he thought; and being a man of no scientific passions (except in the matter of conveyancing) he even added:
→»Ach,« sagte er sich, »sie haben sich über irgendeine wissenschaftliche Frage gezankt.

‘It is nothing worse than that!’
→Gott sei Dank, daß es nichts Schlimmeres ist.«

He gave his friend a few seconds to recover his composure, and then approached the question he had come to put.
→Nach einigen Minuten Stillschweigen fragte er Lanyon:

‘Did you ever come across a protégé of his – one Hyde?’ he asked.
→»Kennst du einen gewissen Hyde, einen Bekannten, einen ... Protégé von Jekyll?«

‘Hyde?’ repeated Lanyon. ‘No. Never heard of him.
→»Hyde?« wiederholte Lanyon. »Nein, ich habe nie von ihm gehört.«

That was the amount of information that the lawyer carried back with him to the great, dark bed on which he tossed to and fro, until the small hours of the morning began to grow large.
→Das war also alles, was Utterson erfahren konnte; alle Aufklärungen, die er mit sich nach seinem dunklen, einsamen Hause brachte.

It was a night of little ease to his toiling mind, toiling in mere darkness and besieged by questions.

Six o’clock struck on the bells of the church that was so conveniently near to Mr Utterson’s dwelling, and still he was digging at the problem.
→ Die Kirchenuhr schlug die sechste Morgenstunde.

Hitherto it had touched him on the intellectual side alone; but now his imagination also was engaged or rather enslaved;
→ Bis dahin hatte er nur das wirklich Tatsächliche in Betracht genommen.

and as he lay and tossed in the gross darkness of the night and the curtained room, Mr Enfield’s tale went by before his mind in a scroll of lighted pictures.
→ Jetzt aber entrollten sich vor seiner erhitzten Phantasie Bilder, die ihn mit Grauen und Entsetzen erfüllten. Alles, was ihm Enfield erzählt hatte, stand jetzt hell und deutlich vor ihm wie ein Gemälde.

He would be aware of the great field of lamps of a nocturnal city; then of the figure of a man walking swiftly;
→Er sah die hellerleuchteten einsamen Straßen der großen Stadt; er sah die Gestalt eines Mannes, mit unheimlicher Hast dahinschreitend,

then of a child running from the doctor’s; and then these met, and that human Juggernaut trod the child down and passed on regardless of her screams.
→er sah das Kind, das ihm entgegenlief; jetzt stießen sie aneinander – das Kind fiel, und das Scheusal schritt grausam über den schwachen Körper hinweg.

Or else he would see a room in a rich house, where his friend lay asleep, dreaming and smiling at his dreams;
→Dann sah er ein großes, reich möbliertes Zimmer, dort lag sein alter Freund, Henry Jekyll, ruhig schlafend – und lächelnd in seinen Träumen –

and then the door of that room would be opened, the curtains of the bed plucked apart, the sleeper recalled, and lo!
→jetzt öffnete sich die Tür, die Gardinen des Bettes wurden zurückgeschlagen, der Schläfer erwachte,

there would stand by his side a figure to whom power was given, and even at that dead hour, he must rise and do its bidding.
→und vor ihm stand eine finstere Gestalt, die ihm befahl, aufzustehen und ihm zu folgen.

The figure in these two phases haunted the lawyer all night; and if at any time he dozed over, it was but to see it glide more stealthily through sleeping houses,
→– Diese Gestalt, erst in der Straße, dann in Jekylls Schlafzimmer, wich keinen Augenblick aus Uttersons Vorstellung. Er sah sie, wie ein wüstes Phantom, wie sie leise und unheimlich nachts durch die Häuser schlich;

or move the more swiftly and still the more swiftly, even to dizziness, through wider labyrinths of lamplighted city, and at every street corner crush a child and leave her screaming.
→er sah sie, wie sie mit wilder Hast durch die nächtlichen Straßen eilte; an jeder Ecke kam ein kleines Mädchen gelaufen, das das Ungeheuer zu Boden warf und zertrampelte.

And still the figure had no face by which he might know it; even in his dreams, it had no face, or one that baffled him and melted before his eyes;
→A pořád to byla postava bez obličeje, podle kterého by ji mohl poznat, ani v jeho snech neměla obličej, nebo jen takový, že mu unikal a před očima se mu rozplýval.

And still the figure had no face by which he might know it; even in his dreams, it had no face, or one that baffled him and melted before his eyes;
→Doch konnte er das Gesicht des Unholds nicht erkennen – die Züge verschwammen wie ein Nebelbild ...

and thus it was that there sprang up and grew apace in the lawyer’s mind a singularly strong, almost an inordinate, curiosity to behold the features of the real Mr Hyde.
→Utterson konnte es nicht länger ertragen. Er sprang aus dem Bett, mit dem festen Vorsatz, nicht eher zu rasten noch zu ruhen, bis er Hyde gefunden habe.

If he could but once set eyes on him, he thought the mystery would lighten and perhaps roll altogether away, as was the habit of mysterious things when well examined.
→– Wenn er ihn nur einmal sehen könnte, sagte er sich, so würde sich das ganze Geheimnis aufklären, vielleicht ganz und gar verschwinden, wie dies so oft geschieht, wenn man sich nur Mühe gibt, einer Sache auf den Grund zu gehen.

He might see a reason for his friend’s strange preference or bondage (call it which you please) and even for the startling clauses of the will.
→Er würde vielleicht etwas entdecken, was ihm Jekylls seltsame Zuneigung zu Hyde, oder das geheimnisvolle Band, das die beiden vereinigte, erklärte, das ein Licht auf Jekylls merkwürdiges Testament werfen könnte.

Auf alle Fälle wollte er das Gesicht dieses Menschen ohne menschliches Gefühl sehen, das Gesicht, das selbst in dem ruhigen, phlegmatischen Enfield eine Empfindung unauslöschlichen Abscheus hervorgerufen hatte.
→And at least it would be a face worth seeing: the face of a man who was without bowels of mercy: a face which had but to show itself to raise up, in the mind of the unimpressionable Enfield, a spirit of enduring hatred.

From that time forward, Mr Utterson began to haunt the door in the bystreet of shops.
→–Von diesem Augenblick an verging kein Tag, an dem Utterson nicht zu irgend einer Zeit in der Nähe der unheimlichen Tür zu sehen war.

In the morning before office hours, at noon when business was plenty and time scarce, at night under the face of the fogged city moon, by all lights and at all hours of solitude or concourse, the lawyer was to be found on his chosen post.
→Er war dort morgens in aller Frühe, ehe er auf sein Bureau ging; er war dort in der Mittagsstunde im Gedränge der lebhaften Straße, und wieder des Nachts, wenn das blasse Mondlicht die nebelbedeckte Stadt gespenstisch erleuchtete.

‘If he be Mr Hyde,’ he had thought, ‘I shall be Mr Seek.’

And at last his patience was rewarded. It was a fine dry night; frost in the air; the streets as clean as a ballroom floor; the lamps, unshaken by any wind, drawing a regular pattern of light and shadow.
→Endlich wurde seine Ausdauer belohnt. Es war in einer schönen, kalten Winternacht; die Straßen waren rein gefegt, wie ein Ballsaal; die Laternen brannten hell, ihre Flammen, von keinem Winde bewegt, warfen die Schatten scharf und deutlich auf das Pflaster.

By ten o’clock, when the shops were closed, the bystreet was very solitary and, in spite of the low growl of London from all round, very silent.
→Nach zehn Uhr, als die Läden geschlossen waren, wurde die kleine Straße recht still und öde – nur von fern hörte man das dumpfe Brausen der mächtigen Stadt.

Small sounds carried far; domestic sounds out of the houses were clearly audible on either side of the roadway; and the rumour of the approach of any passenger preceded him by a long time.
→Selbst das kleinste Geräusch war in der nächtlichen Stille deutlich vernehmbar. Utterson war erst wenige Minuten auf seinem Posten, als er nicht weit von sich leise, eilige Schritte hörte.

Mr Utterson had been some minutes at his post, when he was aware of an odd, light footstep drawing near.
→Er hatte sich während seines nächtlichen Wachehaltens an das eigentümliche Geräusch gewöhnt, das der regelmäßige Schritt eines Fußgängers in der Mitte der Nacht hervorruft;

In the course of his nightly patrols, he had long grown accustomed to the quaint effect with which the footfalls of a single person, while he is still a great way off, suddenly spring out distinct from the vast hum and clatter of the city.
→Er hatte sich während seines nächtlichen Wachehaltens an das eigentümliche Geräusch gewöhnt, das der regelmäßige Schritt eines Fußgängers in der Mitte der Nacht hervorruft;

Yet his attention had never before been so sharply and decisively arrested;
→Doch noch nie zuvor war Uttersons Aufmerksamkeit so schnell und lebhaft erregt gewesen, wie in diesem Augenblick.

Er fühlte, daß der Erfolg nahe war, und zog sich vorsichtig in das Dunkel der Sackgasse zurück.
→and it was with a strong, superstitious prevision of success that he withdrew into the entry of the court.

The steps drew swiftly nearer, and swelled out suddenly louder as they turned the end of the street.
→Die Schritte kamen näher und näher, wurden lauter und lauter.

The lawyer, looking forth from the entry, could soon see what manner of man he had to deal with.
→Jetzt hörte Utterson, wie sie um die Straßenecke kamen, – jetzt sah er den nächtlichen Wanderer vor sich.

He was small and very plainly dressed, and the look of him, even at that distance, went somehow strongly against the watcher’s inclination.
→Es war ein kleiner, gewöhnlich angezogener Mann. – Unbegreiflicherweise empfand der Advokat mit einem Male dasselbe Gefühl des Widerwillens, des Abscheus, das sich Enfields bemächtigt hatte.

But he made straight for the door, crossing the roadway to save time; and as he came, he drew a key from his pocket like one approaching home.
→ – Der Mann schritt quer über die Straße, gerade auf die bewußte Tür zu. Er nahm einen Schlüssel aus der Tasche – er war augenscheinlich zu Hause.

Mr Utterson stepped out and touched him on the shoulder as he passed.
→Jetzt trat Utterson aus dem Dunkel hervor und legte seine Hand aus des Mannes Schulter.

‘Mr Hyde, I think?’
→»Herr Hyde, wenn ich nicht irre?«

Mr Hyde shrank back with a hissing intake of the breath.
→Mit einem schlangenartigen Zischen wich Hyde einen Schritt zurück.

But his search for mr hyde fear was only momentary; and though he did not look the lawyer in the face, he answered coolly enough: ‘That is my name.
→Er faßte sich jedoch sofort, und ohne dem Advokaten ins Gesicht zu sehen, sagte er vollständig ruhig: »Das ist mein Name.

What do you want?’
→Was wünschen Sie?«

‘I see you are going in,’ returned the lawyer.
→»Ich sehe, Sie gehen in dieses Haus,« erwiderte der Advokat.

‘I am an old friend of Dr Jekyll’s – Mr Utterson of Gaunt Street
→»Ich bin ein alter Freund von Doktor Jekyll. Ich heiße Utterson, Rechtsanwalt Utterson in Gaunt Street;

– you must have heard my name; and meeting you so conveniently, I thought you might admit me.’
→mein Name ist Ihnen gewiß nicht unbekannt, und da ich Sie gerade hier treffe, wollte ich Sie bitten, mich auch hineinzulassen.«

‘You will not find Dr Jekyll; he is from home,’ replied Mr Hyde, blowing in the key. And then suddenly, but still without looking up, he asked.
→»Sie würden Doktor Jekyll nicht zu Hause finden, er ist verreist,« erwiderte Hyde. Er wollte jetzt die Tür aufschließen, schien sich aber plötzlich zu besinnen, und ohne den Advokaten anzusehen, fragte er:

‘How did you know me?’
→ »Woher kennen Sie mich?«

‘On your side,’ said Mr Utterson, ‘will you do me a favour?’
→Utterson ließ die Frage unberücksichtigt. »Herr Hyde,« sagte er, »wollen Sie mir einen Gefallen tun?«

‘With pleasure,’ replied the other. ‘What shall it be?’
→»Was wünschen Sie?«

‘Will you let me see your face?’ asked the lawyer.
→»Wollen Sie mich Ihr Gesicht sehen lassen?«

Mr Hyde appeared to hesitate, and then, as if upon some sudden reflection, fronted about with an air of defiance; and the pair stared at each other pretty fixedly for a few seconds.
→Hyde schien einige Augenblicke zu zögern; dann drehte er sich mit einem plötzlichen Entschluß um und sah Utterson trotzig und herausfordernd an. Es währte nur einen Augenblick.

‘Now I shall know you again,’ said Mr Utterson. ‘It may be useful.’
→»So,« sagte Utterson, »jetzt werde ich Sie wiedererkennen. Es könnte von Nutzen sein.«

‘Yes,’ returned Mr Hyde, ‘it is as well we have met; and à propos, you should have my address.’
→»Ja,« sagte Hyde, »und da wir uns einmal getroffen haben, will ich Ihnen auch gleich meine Adresse geben.

And he gave a number of a street in Soho.
→A udal číslo domu v jedné ulici v Soho.

‘Good God!’ thought Mr Utterson, ‘can he too have been thinking of the will?’
→»Allmächtiger Gott!« dachte Utterson, »hat der am Ende dabei an das Testament gedacht?«

But he kept his feelings to himself and only grunted in acknowledgement of the address.
→Er verlor jedoch kein Wort darüber.

‘And now,’ said the other, ‘how did you know me?’
→»Und nun,« sagte Hyde, »darf ich noch einmal fragen, woher Sie mich kennen?«

‘By description,’ was the reply.
→»Nach der Beschreibung.«

‘Whose description?’

‘We have common friends,’ said Mr Utterson.
→»Wir haben gegenseitige Freunde,« sagte Utterson.

‘Common friends?’ echoed Mr Hyde, a little hoarsely.
→»Gegenseitige Freunde?

‘Who are they?’ ‘Jekyll, for instance,’ said the lawyer.
→ Und wer wären die?« »Doktor Jekyll zum Beispiel.«

‘He never told you,’ cried Mr Hyde, with a flush of anger. ‘I did not think you would have lied.’
→»Der? Der hat es Ihnen nicht gesagt,« brach Hyde mit großer Heftigkeit aus. »Sie lügen!«

‘Come,’ said Mr Utterson, ‘that is not fitting language.’
→»Herr,« sagte Utterson, »das ist eine Sprache, die Ihnen sehr wenig zusteht.«

The other snarled aloud into a savage laugh; and the next moment, with extraordinary quickness, he had unlocked the door and disappeared into the house.
→Der andere antwortete mit einem höhnischen Gelächter, und mit unglaublicher Schnelligkeit hatte er plötzlich die Tür aufgeschlossen und war hinter derselben verschwunden.

The lawyer stood awhile when Mr Hyde had left him, the picture of disquietude.
→Der Advokat blieb einige Minuten vor der Tür stehen, ein Bild der Angst und Unruhe.

Then he began slowly to mount the street, pausing every step or two and putting his hand to his brow like a man in mental perplexity.
→Dann ging er langsam und gedankenvoll die Straße entlang. Von Zeit zu Zeit blieb er stehen, strich sich mit der Hand über die Stirn, wie einer, der große innerliche Qualen leidet.

The problem he was thus debating as he walked, was one of a class that is rarely solved.
→Das Rätsel, dessen Lösung ihn peinigte, war kein leichtes.

Mr Hyde was pale and dwarfish,
→Hyde war ein kleiner, zwerghafter Mann.

he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice;
→Er machte den Eindruck eines Verwachsenen, doch konnte man nicht sehen, wo das Gebrechen saß. Er hatte ein widerwärtiges Lächeln; sein Benehmen gegen Utterson war eine Mischung von verbrecherartiger Furcht und Frechheit;

all these were points against him, but not all of these together could explain the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing and fear with which Mr Utterson regarded him.
→alles dies mußte jedermann gegen ihn einnehmen; aber es war dennoch nicht genug, um diesen namenlosen Abscheu, diesen Widerwillen, diese Furcht zu erklären, die Utterson in seiner Gegenwart empfand.

‘There must be something else,’ said the perplexed gentleman.
→»Nein,« sagte er sich, »es steckt noch etwas dahinter –

‘There is something more, if I could find a name for it.
→aber was ist es? Ich kann keinen Namen dafür finden.

God bless me, the man seems hardly human!
→Der Mann hat nichts Menschliches an sich, er ist wie ein Gnom, ein böser Alp.

Something troglodytic, shall we say? or can it be the old story of Dr Fell?
→er ist wie ein Gnom, ein böser Alp. Habe ich ein Vorurteil gegen ihn gefaßt durch Enfields Geschichte

or is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires through, and transfigures, its clay continent?
→– oder ist es wirklich der Abglanz einer niederträchtigen, durch und durch gemeinen Seele, der sich in seiner Erscheinung widerspiegelt?

The last, I think; for O my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan’s signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend.’
→Ja, das muß es sein! O, mein armer, alter Henry Jekyll, wenn je ein Mensch mit dem Siegel Satans gebrandmarkt war, so ist es dein neuer Freund, Herr Edward Hyde!«

Round the corner from the bystreet, there was a square of ancient, handsome houses, now for the most part decayed from their high estate and let in flats and chambers to all sorts and conditions of men:
→Utterson hatte jetzt das Ende der kleinen Straße erreicht. Er bog um die Ecke und kam auf einen Square, der von schönen, alten Häusern umgeben war. Die meisten derselben hatten etwas von ihrem ehemaligen Glanze eingebüßt. Sie waren in verschiedene Wohnungen eingeteilt;

map-engravers, architects, shady lawyers and the agents of obscure enterprises.
→einzelne Zimmer wurden möbliert vermietet, manche wurden als Ateliers, als Bureaus von Winkeladvokaten oder von Agenten zweifelhafter Unternehmungen und Geschäfte benutzt.

One house, however, second from the corner, was still occupied entire;
→Nur eins, das zweite von der Ecke – hatte sein reiches, vornehmes ???äußere bewahrt;

and at the door of this, which wore a great air of wealth and comfort, though it was now plunged in darkness except for the fanlight, Mr Utterson stopped and knocked.
→es war augenscheinlich nur von einer Familie bewohnt. Trotz der späten Abendstunde ging Herr Utterson schnell und entschlossen an die schwere Tür und klopfte.

A well-dressed, elderly servant opened the door.
→Ein ältlicher Diener öffnete.

‘Is Dr Jekyll at home, Poole?’ asked the lawyer.
→»Ist Doktor Jekyll zu Hause, Poole?« fragte der Advokat.

‘I will see, Mr Utterson,’ said Poole,
→»Ich will gleich sehen, Herr Utterson,« sagte Poole,

admitting the visitor, as he spoke, into a large, low-roofed, comfortable hall, paved with flags, warmed (after the fashion of a country house) by a bright, open fire, and furnished with costly cabinets of oak.
→»bitte, treten Sie näher.« Er führte den Advokaten in die große, schöne Eintrittshalle des Hauses, die mit kostbaren Teppichen belegt und mit antiken, eichenen Möbeln ausgestattet, bei dem hellen Kohlenfeuer im offenen Kamin einen außerordentlich behaglichen und freundlichen Eindruck machte.

‘Will you wait here by the fire, sir? or shall I give you a light in the dining room?’
→»Wollen Sie hier warten,« fragte Poole, »oder wollen Sie in das Speisezimmer gehen?«

‘Here, thank you,’ said the lawyer, and he drew near and leaned on the tall fender.
→»Ich warte lieber hier,« sagte der Advokat. Er ging an das Feuer und lehnte sich an den hohen Kamin.

This hall, in which he was now left alone, was a pet fancy of his friend the doctor’s;
→Diese Vorhalle war Jekylls Lieblingsaufenthalt.

and Utterson himself was wont to search for Mr Hyde speak of it as the pleasantest room in London.
→Auch Utterson pflegte zu sagen, daß es der gemütlichste Ort in ganz London sei.

But tonight there was a shudder in his blood; the face of Hyde sat heavy on his memory; he felt (what was rare with him) a nausea and distaste of life;
→Aber heute abend, als er beim Feuer stand, fühlte er ein unheimliches, nervöses Zittern durch alle Glieder seines Körpers, das dämonische Gesicht Hydes kam ihm nicht aus den Augen;

and in the gloom of his spirits, he seemed to read a menace in the flickering of the firelight on the polished cabinets and the uneasy starting of the shadow on the roof.
→er hörte noch das teuflische Lachen, mit dem der unheimliche Geselle eben hinter der Tür verschwunden war – zum ersten Male fühlte er etwas wie Lebensüberdruß; drohend und verzerrt grinste ihm Hydes Antlitz aus den flackernden Flammen des Feuers entgegen.

He was ashamed of his relief, when Poole presently returned to announce that Dr Jekyll was gone out.
→Er schämte sich fast, ein Gefühl der Erleichterung zu empfinden, als Poole zurückkam und ihm meldete, daß sein Herr nicht zu Hause sei.

‘I saw Mr Hyde go in by the old dissecting room door, Poole,’ he said. ‘Is that right, when Dr Jekyll is from home?’
→»Ich sah soeben Herrn Hyde in das Hinterhaus gehen,« sagte er. »Er hat einen Schlüssel zu der Tür, die in den alten Seziersaal führt.

‘Quite right, Mr Utterson, sir,’ replied the servant. ‘Mr Hyde has a key.’
→»Ganz in Ordnung, Herr Utterson,« sagte der alte Diener, »ich weiß, daß Herr Hyde einen Schlüssel hat.«

‘Your master seems to repose a great deal of trust in that young man, Poole,’ resumed the other musingly.
→»Ihr Herr scheint großes Vertrauen in diesen Mann zu setzen,« sagte Utterson nachdenklich.

‘Yes, sir, he do indeed,’ said Poole. ‘We have all orders to obey him.’
→»Großes Vertrauen,« sagte Poole, »wir haben alle Befehl, ihm unbedingt zu gehorchen.«

‘I do not think I ever met Mr Hyde?’ asked Utterson.
→»Ich glaube nicht, daß ich Herrn Hyde je hier im Hause getroffen habe,« fuhr Utterson fort.

‘O, dear no, sir. He never dines here,’ replied the butler.
→»O nein,« erwiderte Poole. »Er erscheint nie, wenn Besuch im Hause ist.

‘Indeed we see very little of him on this side of the house; he mostly comes and goes by the laboratory.’
→Wir sehen übrigens auch wenig von ihm; er kommt und geht stets durch die Hintertür.«

‘Well, good night, Poole.’ ‘Good night, Mr Utterson.’
→»Gute Nacht, Poole!« »Gute Nacht, Herr Utterson!«

And the lawyer set out homeward with a very heavy heart. ‘Poor Harry Jekyll,’ he thought,
→Mit schwerem Herzen trat der Advokat seinen Heimweg an. »Armer Henry Jekyll,« sagte er sich.

‘my mind misgives me he is in deep waters! He was wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure; but in the law of God, there is no statute of limitations.
→»Er muß in arger Bedrängnis sein! Er war wild und ausschweifend, als er jung war. Aber der allgütige Gott hat das doch längst vergeben.

Ay, it must be that; the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace:
→Was kann es nur sein, das ihn an diesen Hyde kettet? Ist es das Gespenst einer alten Sünde? Ist es eine verborgene Schandtat, die ihm wie ein Krebs am Leben frißt?

punishment coming, pede claudo, years after memory has forgotten and self-love condoned the fault.’
→Ist es eine Strafe, die langsam, aber unabwendbar naht, nach Jahren, nachdem die Untat vielleicht schon aus dem Gedächtnis entschwunden?«

And the lawyer, scared by the thought, brooded awhile on his own past, groping in all the corners of memory, lest by chance some Jack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity should leap to light there.
→Er warf einen Uberblick über seine eigene Vergangenheit. Er quälte sich mit der Vorstellung, daß auch in seinem Leben irgendwo noch ein Vergehen, eine unwürdige Handlung verborgen sein könne, deren er sich nicht mehr erinnere.

His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done,
→Wenigen möchte es vergönnt sein, mit solcher Ruhe, mit solchem Selbstbewußtsein das Vergangene zu betrachten, wie dem Rechtsanwalt Utterson.

and raised up again into a sober and fearful gratitude by the many that he had come so near to doing, yet avoided.
→Doch in seinem strengen Selbsturteil dachte er an manches, was er lieber nicht getan haben möchte.

And then by a return on his former subject, he conceived a spark of hope.
→Dann kam er wieder auf Jekyll und Hyde.

‘This Master Hyde, if he were studied,’ thought he, ‘must have secrets of his own:
→»Dieser Hyde,« sagte er sich, »muß auch Geheimnisse haben.

black secrets, by the look of him; secrets compared to which poor Jekyll’s worst would be like sunshine.
→Dunkle böse Taten, neben denen das Schlimmste, was Jekyll getan, wie das Sonnenlicht glänzt.

Things cannot continue as they are.
→Nein, es darf so nicht länger bleiben!

It turns me cold to think of this creature stealing like a thief to Harry’s bedside;
→Der bloße Gedanke an diesen Hyde, der sich wie ein Dieb an Henrys Bett schleicht, macht mich schaudern.

poor Harry, what a wakening! And the danger of it;
→Und das schlimmste ist, daß,

for if this Hyde suspects the existence of the will, he may grow impatient to inherit.
→wenn Hyde nur eine Ahnung von dem Inhalt des Testaments hat, er vielleicht ungeduldig wird.

Ay, I must put my shoulder to the wheel – if Jekyll will but let me,’ he added, ‘if Jekyll will only let me.’
→Ich muß und will der Sache aus den Grund kommen: es koste, was es wolle – wenn Jekyll mich nur läßt – ja,« sagte er gedankenvoll – »wenn Jekyll mich nur läßt.«

For once more he saw before his mind’s eye, as clear as a transparency, the strange clauses of the will.
→Und die seltsamen Verfügungen des Testaments traten ihm wieder deutlich und bestimmt vor die Seele.

-III-

A fortnight later, by excellent good fortune, the doctor gave one of his pleasant dinners to some five or six old cronies, all intelligent, reputable men and all judges of good wine;
→Ungefähr vierzehn Tage nach den eben erzählten Ereignissen gab Doktor Jekyll eines seiner gemütlichen Essen, die sich immer durch vortreffliche Küche, feine alte Weine und gute Gesellschaft auszeichneten.

and Mr Utterson so contrived that he remained behind after the others had departed.
→Utterson war noch geblieben, nachdem die anderen Gäste gegangen waren.

‘I have been wanting to speak to you, Jekyll,’ began the latter. ‘You know that will of yours?’
→Endlich sagte Utterson: »Ich habe schon längst mit dir sprechen wollen, Jekyll, du weißt, wegen deines Testaments.«

A close observer might have gathered that the topic was distasteful; but the doctor carried it off gaily.
→Ohne Jekylls Bemerkungen über Lanyon die geringste Aufmerksamkeit zu schenken, fuhr der Advokat fort:

‘My poor Utterson,’ said he, ‘you are unfortunate in such a client.

I never saw a man so distressed as you were by my will; unless it were that hide-bound pedant, Lanyon,

at what he called my scientific heresies.

O, I know he’s a good fellow – you needn’t frown – an excellent fellow, and I always mean to see more of him;

but a hide-bound pedant for all that; an ignorant blatant pedant.

I was never more disappointed in any man than Lanyon.’ »Du weißt, ich habe nie meine Zustimmung zu diesem Testament gegeben.«

‘You know I never approved of it,’ pursued Utterson, ruthlessly disregarding the fresh topic. ‘My will? Yes, certainly, I know that,’ said the doctor, a trifle sharply.‘You have told me so.’
→»O, du sprichst schon wieder davon?« sagte Jekyll, »ich weiß, ich weiß,« fuhr er etwas gereizt fort, »du hast es mir wenigstens oft genug gesagt.«

‘Well, I tell you so again,’ continued the lawyer. ‘I have been learning something of young Hyde.’
→»Und ich sage es dir noch einmal,« erwiderte Utterson, »mir ist etwas zu Ohren gekommen über diesen jungen Hyde.«

The large handsome face of Dr Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes.
→Jekylls schönes, großes Gesicht wurde blaß wie der Tod, seine Augen nahmen einen finstern, beängstigenden Ausdruck an.

‘I do not care to hear more,’ said he. ‘This is a matter I thought we had agreed to drop.’
→»Ich will über diese Angelegenheit nichts mehr hören,« sagte er. »Ich glaubte, wir wären überein gekommen, die Sache nicht weiter zu besprechen.«

‘What I heard was abominable,’ said Utterson. ‘It can make no change. You do not understand my position,’ returned the doctor, with a certain incoherency of manner.
→»Was ich über Hyde gehört habe,« sagte Utterson, »ist etwas Schändliches.« »Das geht mich nichts an,« erwiderte der Doktor, »ich werde mein Testament nicht ändern.

‘I am painfully situated, Utterson; my position is a very strange – a very strange one. It is one of those affairs that cannot be mended by talking.’
→Ich bin in einer sehr schwierigen Lage. Der Fall ist ein seltsamer, ein ungewöhnlicher. Es nützt nichts, noch weiter darüber zu sprechen.«

‘Jekyll,’ said Utterson, ‘you know me: I am a man to be trusted.
→»Jekyll,« sagte der Advokat mit ungewöhnlicher Wärme und Herzlichkeit, »wir sind alte Freunde; du kennst mich, du kannst mir trauen.

Make a clean breast of this in confidence; and I make no doubt I can get you out of it.’
→Sage mir alles, ich bin fest überzeugt, ich kann dich aus dieser mißlichen Lage befreien.«

‘My good Utterson,’ said the doctor, ‘this is very good of you, this is downright good of you, and I cannot find words to thank you in.
→»Mein lieber Utterson, du bist zu gut, wirklich zu gut. Ich kann keine Worte finden, um dir zu danken.

I believe you fully; I would trust you before any man alive, ay, before myself, if I could make the choice;
→Ich glaube dir; ich traue dir mehr als irgend einem – mehr als mir selbst.

but indeed it isn’t what you fancy; it is not so bad as that; and just to put your good heart at rest, I will tell you one thing:
→Aber laß nur, die Geschichte ist nicht so schlimm, wie du glaubst; quäle dein altes, treues Herz nicht damit. Soviel will ich dir zur Beruhigung sagen,

the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr Hyde. I give you my hand upon that; and I thank you again and again;
→ich kann mich Hydes jeden Augenblick entledigen – sobald ich es nur will. Darauf gebe ich dir meine Hand, und danke dir noch tausendmal.

and I will just add one little word, Utterson, that I’m sure you’ll take in good part: this is a private matter, and I beg of you to let it sleep.’
→Und nun noch eines – doch das ist kaum zu erwähnen nötig – es ist eine Privatangelegenheit, laß sie zwischen uns beiden ruhen.«

Utterson reflected a little looking in the fire. ‘I have no doubt you are perfectly right,’ he said at last, getting to his feet.
→Utterson blickte nachdenklich ins Feuer. Nach einigen Minuten stand er auf und sagte: »Vielleicht handelst du recht, Gott gebe es!«

‘Well, but since we have touched upon this business, and for the last time I hope,’ continued the doctor, ‘there is one point I should like you to understand. I have really a very great interest in poor Hyde.
→»Und nun,« sagte der Doktor, »da wir hoffentlich zum letzten Male über diese Angelegenheit sprechen, möchte ich dich noch auf etwas aufmerksam machen.

I know you have seen him; he told me so; and I fear he was rude.
→Ich weiß, du hast Hyde gesehen, er hat es mir gesagt, ich fürchte, er ist ungezogen gegen dich gewesen.

But I do sincerely take a great, a very great interest in that young man; and if I am taken away, Utterson, I wish you to promise me that you will bear with him and get his rights for him.
→Ich nehme aber ein großes, ein außerordentlich großes Interesse an allem, was ihn betrifft. Versprich mir, Utterson, daß, wenn ich sterbe, du ihm beistehst, ihm zu seinem Rechte verhilfst.

I think you would, if you knew all; and it would be a weight off my mind if you would promise.’
→Ich weiß, du würdest es tun, wenn du alles wüßtest; gib mir dein Versprechen, es wird mir eine große Last vom Herzen nehmen.«

‘I can’t pretend that I shall ever like him,’ said the lawyer.
→»Ich kann ihn nie liebgewinnen,« sagte Utterson.

‘I don’t ask that,’ pleaded Jekyll, laying his hand upon the other’s arm;
→»Das verlange ich auch nicht,« sagte Jekyll. Er legte seine Hände auf des Advokaten Schultern und fuhr in ernstem, rührendem Tone fort:

‘I only ask for justice;
→ »Ich verlange nur Gerechtigkeit.

I only ask you to help him for my sake, when I am no longer here.’
→Ich bitte dich, stehe ihm bei, um meinetwillen, Utterson, wenn ich nicht mehr bin.«

Utterson heaved an irrepressible sigh. ‘Well,’ said he. ‘I promise.’
→»Ich verspreche es dir,« sagte Utterson.

-IV-



Nearly a year later, in the month of October 18.. , London was startled by a crime of singular ferocity and rendered all the more notable by the high position of the victim.
→Beinahe ein Jahr darauf, im Monat Oktober 18.. wurde ganz London in Aufregung versetzt durch einen Mord, der mit außergewöhnlicher Brutalität verübt war, und der außerdem durch die hohe gesellschaftliche Stellung des Ermordeten ganz besonders Aufsehen erregte.

The details were few and startling. A maidservant living alone in a house not far from the river, had gone upstairs to bed about eleven.
→Ein Dienstmädchen, das während der Abwesenheit ihrer Herrschaft allein ein großes Haus in der Nähe der Themse bewohnte, war gegen 11 Uhr abends in ihre Schlafstube gegangen.

Although a fog rolled over the city in the small hours, the early part of the night was cloudless, and the lane, which the maid’s window overlooked, was brilliantly lit by the full moon.
→Es war eine schöne, ruhige Nacht; die kleine Straße, welche das Mädchen von ihrem Fenster aus übersah, war tageshell von dem glänzenden Lichte des Vollmonds beleuchtet.

It seems she was romantically given for she sat down upon her box, which stood immediately under the window, and fell into a dream of musing.
→Das junge Mädchen hatte eine romantische Natur. Sie setzte sich an das offene Fenster und verfiel in träumerisches Nachdenken.

Never (she used to say, with streaming tears, when she narrated that experience) never had she felt more at peace with all men or thought more kindly of the world.
→Selten – wie sie vor Gericht unter strömenden Tränen aussagte – selten hatte sie sich so friedvoll, so ruhig, so glücklich gefühlt.

And as she so sat she became aware of an aged and beautiful gentleman with white hair, drawing near along the lane;
→Sie blickte die Straße entlang und sah, wie ein schöner, stattlicher alter Herr mit weißem Haar die Straße herauf kam.

and advancing to meet him, another and very small gentleman, to whom at first she paid less attention.
→Aus der entgegengesetzten Richtung kam schnellen Schrittes ein anderer, ein untersetzter, gewöhnlich aussehender Mann, den sie zu Anfang nicht näher betrachtete.

When they had come within speech (which was just under the maid’s eyes) the older man bowed and accosted the other with a very pretty manner of politeness.
→Die beiden begegneten sich gerade unter dem Fenster, an dem das Mädchen saß. Obgleich sie nicht hören konnte, was sie sagten, so konnte sie, dank dem hellen Mondlicht, ihre Gesichter deutlich erkennen.

It did not seem as if the subject of his address were of great importance; indeed, from his pointing, it sometimes appeared as if he were only inquiring his way;
→Er verbeugte sich höflich vor dem anderen und schien etwas zu fragen. Wahrscheinlich, wie das Mädchen später angab, hatte er sich verirrt und erkundigte sich nach dem richtigen Wege.

but the moon shone on his face as he spoke, and the girl was pleased to watch it, it seemed to breathe such an innocent and old-world kindness of disposition, yet with something high too, as of a well-founded self-content.
→Obgleich sie nicht hören konnte, was sie sagten, so konnte sie, dank dem hellen Mondlicht, ihre Gesichter deutlich erkennen.

Presently her eye wandered to the other, and she was surprised to recognize in him a certain Mr Hyde, who had once visited her master and for whom she had conceived a dislike.
→Jetzt sah das Mädchen auch den kleinen, vierschrötigen Mann an und erkannte in ihm einen gewissen Herrn Hyde, der ihren Herrn mehrmals besucht hatte, und vor dem sie stets einen großen Abscheu empfunden.

He had in his hand a heavy cane, with which he was trifling; but he answered never a word, and seemed to listen with an ill-contained impatience.
→Hyde trug einen kurzen, dicken Stock, den er nervös in der Hand herumdrehte – er antwortete nicht auf die höfliche Frage des alten Herrn und schien ihn mit schlecht verhehlter Ungeduld anzuhören.

And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman.
→Mit einem Male geriet er in eine furchtbare Wut – er stampfte mit den Füßen, schwang seinen Stock um sich und benahm sich überhaupt wie ein Rasender.

The old gentleman took a step back, with the air of one very much surprised and a trifle hurt; and at that Mr Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth.
→Der alte Herr wich erstaunt und augenscheinlich beleidigt einen Schritt zurück. Auf einmal, ohne jede Veranlassung, streckte ihn Hyde mit einem wuchtigen Hieb seines Knüppels zu Boden.

And next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot, and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway.
→Dann sprang er mit affenartiger Wut auf den dahingestreckten Körper seines Opfers und trampelte darauf herum, als ob er ihn zu Brei zermalmen wollte.

At the horror of these sights and sounds, the maid fainted.
→Bei diesem entsetzlichen Anblick wurde das Mädchen ohnmächtig.

It was two o’clock when she came to herself and called for the police.
→Es war gegen zwei Uhr, als sie zu sich kam und die Polizei rufen konnte.

The murderer was gone long ago; but there lay his victim in the middle of the lane, incredibly mangled.
→Die Leiche des Ermordeten lag noch auf der Straße.

The stick with which the deed had been done, although it was of some rare and very tough and heavy wood, had broken in the middle under the stress of this insensate cruelty; and one splintered half had rolled in the neighbouring gutter – the other, without doubt, had been carried away by the murderer.
→Der Stock aus fremdländischem, hartem Holz, mit dem der Mord verübt, war zerbrochen – mit solcher Wut hatte das Ungeheuer geschlagen. Die eine zersplitterte Hälfte war in die Straßengosse gerollt, die andere hatte der Mörder mitgenommen.







???







A purse and a gold watch were found upon the victim; but no cards or papers, except a sealed and stamped envelope, which he had been probably carrying to the post, and which bore the name and address of Mr Utterson. This was brought to the lawyer the next morning, before he was out of bed; and he had no sooner seen it, and been told the circumstances, than he shot out a solemn lip. ‘I shall say nothing till I have seen the body,’ said he; ‘this may be very serious. Have the kindness to wait while I dress.’ And with the same grave countenance he hurried through his breakfast and drove to the police station, whither the body had been carried. As soon as he came into the cell, he nodded. ‘Yes,’ said he, ‘I recognize him. I am sorry to say that this is Sir Danvers Carew.’ ‘Good God, sir,’ exclaimed the officer, ‘is it possible?’ And the next moment his eye lighted up with professional ambition. ‘This will make a deal of noise,’ he said. ‘And perhaps you can help us to the man.’ And he briefly narrated what the maid had seen, and showed the broken stick. Mr Utterson had already quailed at the name of Hyde; but when the stick was laid before him, he could doubt no longer: broken and battered as it was, he recognized it for one that he had himself presented many years before to Henry Jekyll. ‘Is this Mr Hyde a person of small stature?’ he inquired. the carew murder case  ‘Particularly small and particularly wicked-looking, is what the maid calls him,’ said the officer. Mr Utterson reflected; and then, raising his head, ‘If you will come with me in my cab,’ he said, ‘I think I can take you to his house.’ It was by this time about nine in the morning, and the first fog of the season. A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven, but the wind was continually charging and routing these embattled vapours; so that as the cab crawled from street to street, Mr Utterson beheld a marvellous number of degrees and hues of twilight; for here it would be dark like the back-end of evening; and there would be a glow of a rich, lurid brown, like the light of some strange conflagration; and here, for a moment, the fog would be quite broken up, and a haggard shaft of daylight would glance in between the swirling wreaths. The dismal quarter of Soho⁴ seen under these changing glimpses, with its muddy ways, and slatternly passengers, and its lamps, which had never been extinguished or had been kindled afresh to combat this mournful reinvasion of darkness, seemed, in the lawyer’s eyes, like a district of some city in a nightmare. The thoughts of his mind, besides, were of the gloomiest dye; and when he glanced at the companion of his drive, he was conscious of some touch of that terror of the law and the law’s officers, which may at times assail the most honest. As the cab drew up before the address indicated, the fog lifted a little and showed him a dingy street, a gin palace, a low French eating house, a shop for the retail of penny numbers and twopenny salads, many ragged children huddled in the doorways, and many women of many different nationalities passing out, key in hand, to have a morning glass; and the next moment the fog settled down again upon that part, as brown as umber, and cut him off from his blackguardly surroundings. This was the home of Henry Jekyll’s favourite; of a man who was heir to a quarter of a million sterling. An ivory-faced and silvery-haired old woman opened the door. She had an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy; but her manners were excellent. Yes, she said, this was Mr Hyde’s, but he was not at home; he had been in that night very late, but had gone away again in less than an hour; there was nothing strange in that; his habits were very  dr jekyll and mr hyde irregular, and he was often absent; for instance, it was nearly two months since she had seen him till yesterday. ‘Very well then, we wish to see his rooms,’ said the lawyer; and when the woman began to declare it was impossible, ‘I had better tell you who this person is,’ he added. ‘This is Inspector Newcomen of Scotland Yard.’ A flash of odious joy appeared upon the woman’s face. ‘Ah!’ said she, ‘he is in trouble! What has he done?’ Mr Utterson and the inspector exchanged glances. ‘He don’t seem a very popular character,’ observed the latter. ‘And now, my good woman, just let me and this gentleman have a look about us.’ In the whole extent of the house, which but for the old woman remained otherwise empty, Mr Hyde had only used a couple of rooms; but these were furnished with luxury and good taste. A closet was filled with wine; the plate was of silver, the napery elegant; a good picture hung upon the walls, a gift (as Utterson supposed) from Henry Jekyll, who was much of a connoisseur; and the carpets were of many pi s and agreeable in colour. At this moment, however, the rooms bore every mark of having been recently and hurriedly ransacked; clothes lay about the floor, with their pockets inside out; lockfast drawers stood open; and on the hearth there lay a pile of grey ashes, as though many papers had been burned. From these embers the inspector disinterred the butt end of a green cheque book, which had resisted the action of the fire; the other half of the stick was found behind the door; and as this clinched his suspicions, the officer declared himself delighted. A visit to the bank, where several thousand pounds were found to be lying to the murderer’s credit, completed his gratification. ‘You may depend upon it, sir,’ he told Mr Utterson: ‘I have him in my hand. He must have lost his head, or he would never have left the stick or, above all, burned the cheque book. Why, money’s life to the man. We have nothing to do but wait for him at the bank, and get out the handbills.’ This last, however, was not so easy of accomplishment; for Mr Hyde had numbered few familiars – even the master of the servantmaid had only seen him twice; his family could nowhere be traced; he had never le the carew murder case  been photographed;⁵ and the few who could describe him differed widely, as common observers will. Only on one point, were they agreed; and that was the haunting sense of unexpressed deformity with which the fugitive impressed his beholders.      It was late in the afternoon, when Mr Utterson found his way to Dr Jekyll’s door, where he was at once admitted by Poole, and carried down by the kitchen offices and across a yard which had once been a garden, to the building which was indifferently known as the laboratory or the dissecting rooms.¹ The doctor had bought the house from the heirs of a celebrated surgeon; and his own tastes being rather chemical than anatomical, had changed the destination of the block at the bottom of the garden. It was the first time that the lawyer had been received in that part of his friend’s quarters; and he eyed the dingy windowless structure with curiosity, and gazed round with a distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre, once crowded with eager students and now lying gaunt and silent, the tables laden with chemical apparatus, the floor strewn with crates and littered with packing straw, and the light falling dimly through the foggy cupola. At the further end, a flight of stairs mounted to a door covered with red baize; and through this, Mr Utterson was at last received into the doctor’s cabinet. It was a large room, fitted round with glass presses, furnished, among other things, with a cheval-glass and a business table, and looking out upon the court by three dusty windows barred with iron. The fire burned in the grate; a lamp was set lighted on the chimney shelf, for even in the houses the fog began to lie thickly; and there, close up to the warmth, sat Dr Jekyll, looking deadly sick. He did not rise to meet his visitor, but held out a cold hand and bade him welcome in a changed voice. ‘And now,’ said Mr Utterson, as soon as Poole had left them, ‘you have heard the news?’ The doctor shuddered. ‘They were crying it in the square,’ he said. ‘I heard them in my dining room.’ ‘One word,’ said the lawyer. ‘Carew was my client, but so are you, and I want to know what I am doing. You have not been mad enough to hide this fellow?’ ‘Utterson, I swear to God,’ cried the doctor, ‘I swear to God I will incident of the letter  never set eyes on him again. I bind my honour to you that I am done with him in this world. It is all at an end. And indeed he does not want my help; you do not know him as I do; he is safe, he is quite safe; mark my words, he will never more be heard of.’ The lawyer listened gloomily; he did not like his friend’s feverish manner. ‘You seem pretty sure of him,’ said he; ‘and for your sake, I hope you may be right. If it came to a trial, your name might appear.’ ‘I am quite sure of him,’ replied Jekyll; ‘I have grounds for certainty that I cannot share with anyone. But there is one thing on which you may advise me. I have – I have received a letter; and I am at a loss whether I should show it to the police. I should like to leave it in your hands, Utterson; you would judge wisely I am sure; I have so great a trust in you.’ ‘You fear, I suppose, that it might lead to his detection?’ asked the lawyer. ‘No,’ said the other. ‘I cannot say that I care what becomes of Hyde; I am quite done with him. I was thinking of my own character, which this hateful business has rather exposed.’ Utterson ruminated awhile; he was surprised at his friend’s selfishness, and yet relieved by it. ‘Well,’ said he, at last, ‘let me see the letter.’ The letter was written in an odd, upright hand and signed ‘Edward Hyde’: and it signified, briefly enough, that the writer’s benefactor, Dr Jekyll, whom he had long so unworthily repaid for a thousand generosities, need labour under no alarm for his safety as he had means of escape on which he placed a sure dependence. The lawyer liked this letter well enough; it put a better colour on the intimacy than he had looked for; and he blamed himself for some of his past suspicions.² ‘Have you the envelope?’ he asked. ‘I burned it,’ replied Jekyll, ‘before I thought what I was about. But it bore no postmark. The note was handed in.’ ‘Shall I keep this and sleep upon it?’ asked Utterson. ‘I wish you to judge for me entirely,’ was the reply. ‘I have lost confidence in myself.’ ‘Well, I shall consider,’ returned the lawyer. ‘And now one word  dr jekyll and mr hyde more: it was Hyde who dictated the terms in your will about that disappearance?’ The doctor seemed seized with a qualm of faintness; he shut his mouth tight and nodded. ‘I knew it,’ said Utterson. ‘He meant to murder you. You have had a fine escape.’ ‘I have had what is far more to the purpose,’ returned the doctor solemnly: ‘I have had a lesson – O God, Utterson, what a lesson I have had!’ And he covered his face for a moment with his hands. On his way out, the lawyer stopped and had a word or two with Poole. ‘By the by,’ said he, ‘there was a letter handed in today: what was the messenger like?’ But Poole was positive nothing had come except by post; ‘and only circulars by that,’ he added. This news sent off the visitor with his fears renewed. Plainly the letter had come by the laboratory door; possibly, indeed, it had been written in the cabinet; and if that were so, it must be differently judged, and handled with the more caution. The newsboys, as he went, were crying themselves hoarse along the footways: ‘Special edition. Shocking murder of an MP.’ That was the funeral oration of one friend and client; and he could not help a certain apprehension lest the good name of another should be sucked down in the eddy of the scandal. It was, at least, a ticklish decision that he had to make; and self-reliant as he was by habit, he began to cherish a longing for advice. It was not to be had directly; but perhaps, he thought, it might be fished for. Presently after, he sat on one side of his own hearth, with Mr Guest, his head clerk, upon the other, and midway between, at a nicely calculated distance from the fire, a bottle of a particular old wine that had long dwelt unsunned in the foundations of his house. The fog still slept on the wing above the drowned city, where the lamps glimmered like carbuncles; and through the muffle and smother of these fallen clouds, the procession of the town’s life was still rolling in through the great arteries with a sound as of a mighty wind. But the room was gay with firelight. In the bottle the acids were long ago resolved; the imperial dye had softened with time, as the colour grows richer in stained windows; and the glow of hot autumn afternoons on hillside incident of the letter  vineyards, was ready to be set free and to disperse the fogs of London. Insensibly the lawyer melted. There was no man from whom he kept fewer secrets than Mr Guest; and he was not always sure that he kept as many as he meant. Guest had often been on business to the doctor’s; he knew Poole; he could scarce have failed to hear of Mr Hyde’s familiarity about the house; he might draw conclusions: was it not as well, then, that he should see a letter which put that mystery to rights? and above all since Guest, being a great student and critic of handwriting, would consider the step natural and obliging? The clerk, besides, was a man of counsel; he would scarce read so strange a document without dropping a remark; and by that remark Mr Utterson might shape his future course. ‘This is a sad business about Sir Danvers,’ he said. ‘Yes, sir, indeed. It has elicited a great deal of public feeling,’ returned Guest. ‘The man, of course, was mad.’ ‘I should like to hear your views on that,’ replied Utterson. ‘I have a document here in his handwriting; it is between ourselves, for I scarce knew what to do about it; it is an ugly business at the best. But there it is; quite in your way: a murderer’s autograph.’ Guest’s eyes brightened, and he sat down at once and studied it with passion. ‘No, sir,’ he said; ‘not mad; but it is an odd hand.’ ‘And by all accounts a very odd writer,’ added the lawyer. Just then the servant entered with a note. ‘Is that from Doctor Jekyll, sir?’ inquired the clerk. ‘I thought I knew the writing. Anything private, Mr Utterson?’ ‘Only an invitation to dinner. Why? do you want to see it?’ ‘One moment. I thank you, sir;’ and the clerk laid the two sheets of paper alongside and sedulously compared their contents. ‘Thank you, sir,’ he said at last, returning both; ‘it’s a very interesting autograph.’ There was a pause, during which Mr Utterson struggled with himself. ‘Why did you compare them, Guest?’ he inquired suddenly. ‘Well, sir,’ returned the clerk, ‘there’s a rather singular resemblance; the two hands are in many points identical: only differently sloped.’ ‘Rather quaint,’ said Utterson. ‘It is, as you say, rather quaint,’ returned Guest. ‘I wouldn’t speak of this note, you know,’ said the master.  dr jekyll and mr hyde ‘No, sir,’ said the clerk. ‘I understand.’ But no sooner was Mr Utterson alone that night, than he locked the note into his safe where it reposed from that time forward. ‘What!’ he thought. ‘Henry Jekyll forge for a murderer!’ And his blood ran cold in his veins.       Time ran on; thousands of pounds were offered in reward, for the death of Sir Danvers was resented as a public injury; but Mr Hyde had disappeared out of the ken of the police as though he had never existed. Much of his past was unearthed, indeed, and all disreputable: tales came out of the man’s cruelty, at once so callous and violent, of his vile life, of his strange associates, of the hatred that seemed to have surrounded his career; but of his present whereabouts, not a whisper. From the time he had left the house in Soho on the morning of the murder, he was simply blotted out; and gradually, as time drew on, Mr Utterson began to recover from the hotness of his alarm, and to grow more at quiet with himself. The death of Sir Danvers was, to his way of thinking, more than paid for by the disappearance of Mr Hyde. Now that that evil influence had been withdrawn, a new life began for Dr Jekyll. He came out of his seclusion, renewed relations with his friends, became once more their familiar guest and entertainer; and whilst he had always been known for charities, he was now no less distinguished for religion. He was busy, he was much in the open air, he did good; his face seemed to open and brighten, as if with an inward consciousness of service; and for more than two months, the doctor was at peace. On the th of January Utterson had dined at the doctor’s with a small party; Lanyon had been there; and the face of the host had looked from one to the other as in the old days when the trio were inseparable friends. On the th, and again on the th, the door was shut against the lawyer. ‘The doctor was confined to the house,’ Poole said, ‘and saw no one.’ On the th, he tried again, and was again refused; and having now been used for the last two months to see his friend almost daily, he found this return of solitude to weigh upon his spirits. The fifth night, he had in Guest to dine with him; and the sixth he betook himself to Doctor Lanyon’s. There at least he was not denied admittance; but when he came in, he was shocked at the change which had taken place in the doctor’s  dr jekyll and mr hyde appearance. He had his death-warrant written legibly upon his face. The rosy man had grown pale; his flesh had fallen away; he was visibly balder and older; and yet it was not so much these tokens of a swift physical decay that arrested the lawyer’s notice, as a look in the eye and quality of manner that seemed to testify to some deep-seated terror of the mind. It was unlikely that the doctor should fear death; and yet that was what Utterson was tempted to suspect. ‘Yes,’ he thought; ‘he is a doctor, he must know his own state and that his days are counted; and the knowledge is more than he can bear.’ And yet when Utterson remarked on his ill-looks, it was with an air of great firmness that Lanyon declared himself a doomed man. ‘I have had a shock,’ he said, ‘and I shall never recover. It is a question of weeks. Well, life has been pleasant; I liked it; yes, sir, I used to like it. I sometimes think if we knew all, we should be more glad to get away.’ ‘Jekyll is ill, too,’ observed Utterson. ‘Have you seen him?’ But Lanyon’s face changed, and he held up a trembling hand. ‘I wish to see or hear no more of Doctor Jekyll,’ he said in a loud, unsteady voice. ‘I am quite done with that person; and I beg that you will spare me any allusion to one whom I regard as dead.’ ‘Tut-tut,’ said Mr Utterson; and then after a considerable pause, ‘Can’t I do anything?’ he inquired. ‘We are three very old friends, Lanyon; we shall not live to make others.’ ‘Nothing can be done,’ returned Lanyon; ‘ask himself.’ ‘He will not see me,’ said the lawyer. ‘I am not surprised at that,’ was the reply. ‘Some day, Utterson, after I am dead, you may perhaps come to learn the right and wrong of this. I cannot tell you. And in the meantime, if you can sit and talk with me of other things, for God’s sake, stay and do so; but if you cannot keep clear of this accursed topic, then, in God’s name, go, for I cannot bear it.’ As soon as he got home, Utterson sat down and wrote to Jekyll, complaining of his exclusion from the house, and asking the cause of this unhappy break with Lanyon; and the next day brought him a long answer, often very pathetically worded, and sometimes darkly mysterious in drift. The quarrel with Lanyon was incurable. ‘I do not remarkable incident of doctor lanyon  blame our old friend,’ Jekyll wrote, ‘but I share his view that we must never meet. I mean from henceforth to lead a life of extreme seclusion; you must not be surprised, nor must you doubt my friendship, if my door is often shut even to you. You must suffer me to go my own dark way. I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I cannot name.¹ If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also. I could not think that this earth contained a place for sufferings and terrors so unmanning; and you can do but one thing, Utterson, to lighten this destiny, and that is to respect my silence.’ Utterson was amazed; the dark influence of Hyde had been withdrawn, the doctor had returned to his old tasks and amities; a week ago, the prospect had smiled with every promise of a cheerful and an honoured age; and now in a moment, friendship, and peace of mind and the whole tenor of his life were wrecked. So great and unprepared a change pointed to madness; but in view of Lanyon’s manner and words, there must lie for it some deeper ground. A week afterwards Dr Lanyon took to his bed, and in something less than a fortnight he was dead. The night after the funeral, at which he had been sadly affected, Utterson locked the door of his business room, and sitting there by the light of a melancholy candle, drew out and set before him an envelope addressed by the hand and sealed with the seal of his dear friend. ‘P: for the hands of J. G. Utterson  and in case of his predecease to be destroyed unread’, so it was emphatically superscribed; and the lawyer dreaded to behold the contents. ‘I have buried one friend today,’ he thought: ‘what if this should cost me another?’ And then he condemned the fear as a disloyalty, and broke the seal. Within there was another enclosure, likewise sealed, and marked upon the cover as ‘Not to be opened till the death or disappearance of Dr Henry Jekyll.’ Utterson could not trust his eyes. Yes, it was disappearance; here again, as in the mad will which he had long ago restored to its author, here again were the idea of a disappearance and the name of Henry Jekyll bracketed. But in the will, that idea had sprung from the sinister suggestion of the man Hyde; it was set there with a purpose all too plain and horrible. Written by the hand of Lanyon, what should it mean? A great curiosity came on the trustee, to disregard the prohibition and dive at once to  dr jekyll and mr hyde the bottom of these mysteries; but professional honour and faith to his dead friend were stringent obligations; and the packet slept in the inmost corner of his private safe. It is one thing to mortify curiosity, another to conquer it; and it may be doubted if, from that day forth, Utterson desired the society of his surviving friend with the same eagerness. He thought of him kindly; but his thoughts were disquieted and fearful. He went to call indeed; but he was perhaps relieved to be denied admittance; perhaps, in his heart, he preferred to speak with Poole upon the doorstep and surrounded by the air and sounds of the open city, rather than to be admitted into that house of voluntary bondage, and to sit and speak with its inscrutable recluse. Poole had, indeed, no very pleasant news to communicate. The doctor, it appeared, now more than ever confined himself to the cabinet over the laboratory, where he would sometimes even sleep; he was out of spirits, he had grown very silent, he did not read; it seemed as if he had something on his mind. Utterson became so used to the unvarying character of these reports, that he fell off little by little in the frequency of his visits.      It chanced on Sunday, when Mr Utterson was on his usual walk with Mr Enfield, that their way lay once again through the bystreet; and that when they came in front of the door, both stopped to gaze on it. ‘Well,’ said Enfield, ‘that story’s at an end at least. We shall never see more of Mr Hyde.’ ‘I hope not,’ said Utterson. ‘Did I ever tell you that I once saw him, and shared your feeling of repulsion?’ ‘It was impossible to do the one without the other,’ returned Enfield. ‘And by the way what an ass you must have thought me, not to know that this was a back way to Dr Jekyll’s! It was partly your own fault that I found it out, even when I did.’ ‘So you found it out, did you?’ said Utterson. ‘But if that be so, we may step into the court and take a look at the windows. To tell you the truth, I am uneasy about poor Jekyll; and even outside, I feel as if the presence of a friend might do him good.’ The court was very cool and a little damp, and full of premature twilight, although the sky, high up overhead, was still bright with sunset. The middle one of the three windows was half way open; and sitting close beside it, taking the air with an infinite sadness of mien, like some disconsolate prisoner, Utterson saw Dr Jekyll. ‘What! Jekyll!’ he cried. ‘I trust you are better.’ ‘I am very low, Utterson,’ replied the doctor drearily, ‘very low. It will not last long, thank God.’ ‘You stay too much indoors,’ said the lawyer. ‘You should be out, whipping up the circulation like Mr Enfield and me. (This is my cousin – Mr Enfield – Dr Jekyll.) Come now; get your hat and take a quick turn with us.’ ‘You are very good,’ sighed the other. ‘I should like to very much; but no, no, no, it is quite impossible; I dare not. But indeed, Utterson, I am very glad to see you; this is really a great pleasure; I would ask you and Mr Enfield up, but the place is really not fit.’ ‘Why then,’ said the lawyer, good-naturedly, ‘the best thing we  dr jekyll and mr hyde can do is to stay down here and speak with you from where we are.’ ‘That is just what I was about to venture to propose,’ returned the doctor with a smile. But the words were hardly uttered, before the smile was struck out of his face and succeeded by an expression of such abject terror and despair, as froze the very blood of the two gentlemen below. They saw it but for a glimpse, for the window was instantly thrust down; but that glimpse had been sufficient, and they turned and left the court without a word. In silence, too, they traversed the bystreet; and it was not until they had come into a neighbouring thoroughfare, where even upon a Sunday there were still some stirrings of life, that Mr Utterson at last turned and looked at his companion. They were both pale; and there was an answering horror in their eyes. ‘God forgive us, God forgive us,’ said Mr Utterson. But Mr Enfield only nodded his head very seriously, and walked on once more in silence.     Mr Utterson was sitting by his fireside one evening after dinner, when he was surprised to receive a visit from Poole. ‘Bless me, Poole, what brings you here?’ he cried; and then taking a second look at him, ‘What ails you?’ he added, ‘is the doctor ill?’ ‘Mr Utterson,’ said the man, ‘there is something wrong.’ ‘Take a seat, and here is a glass of wine for you,’ said the lawyer. ‘Now, take your time, and tell me plainly what you want.’ ‘You know the doctor’s ways, sir,’ replied Poole, ‘and how he shuts himself up. Well, he’s shut up again in the cabinet; and I don’t like it, sir – I wish I may die if I like it. Mr Utterson, sir, I’m afraid.’ ‘Now, my good man,’ said the lawyer, ‘be explicit. What are you afraid of ?’ ‘I’ve been afraid for about a week,’ returned Poole, doggedly disregarding the question, ‘and I can bear it no more.’ The man’s appearance amply bore out his words; his manner was altered for the worse; and except for the moment when he had first announced his terror, he had not once looked the lawyer in the face. Even now, he sat with the glass of wine untasted on his knee, and his eyes directed to a corner of the floor. ‘I can bear it no more,’ he repeated. ‘Come,’ said the lawyer, ‘I see you have some good reason, Poole; I see there is something seriously amiss. Try to tell me what it is.’ ‘I think there’s been foul play,’ said Poole, hoarsely. ‘Foul play!’ cried the lawyer, a good deal frightened and rather inclined to be irritated in consequence. ‘What foul play? What does the man mean?’ ‘I daren’t say, sir,’ was the answer; ‘but will you come along with me and see for yourself ?’ Mr Utterson’s only answer was to rise and get his hat and great coat; but he observed with wonder the greatness of the relief that appeared upon the butler’s face, and perhaps with no less, that the wine was still untasted when he set it down to follow.  dr jekyll and mr hyde It was a wild, cold, seasonable night of March, with a pale moon, lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her, and a flying wrack of the most diaphanous and lawny texture. The wind made talking difficult, and flecked the blood into the face. It seemed to have swept the streets unusually bare of passengers, besides; for Mr Utterson thought he had never seen that part of London so deserted. He could have wished it otherwise; never in his life had he been conscious of so sharp a wish to see and touch his fellow-creatures; for struggle as he might, there was borne in upon his mind a crushing anticipation of calamity. The square, when they got there, was all full of wind and dust, and the thin trees in the garden were lashing themselves along the railing. Poole, who had kept all the way a pace or two ahead, now pulled up in the middle of the pavement, and in spite of the biting weather, took off his hat and mopped his brow with a red pockethandkerchief. But for all the hurry of his coming, these were not the dews of exertion that he wiped away, but the moisture of some strangling anguish; for his face was white and his voice, when he spoke, harsh and broken. ‘Well, sir,’ he said, ‘here we are, and God grant there be nothing wrong.’ ‘Amen, Poole,’ said the lawyer. Thereupon the servant knocked in a very guarded manner; the door was opened on the chain; and a voice asked from within, ‘Is that you, Poole?’ ‘It’s all right,’ said Poole. ‘Open the door.’ The hall, when they entered it, was brightly lighted up; the fire was built high; and about the hearth the whole of the servants, men and women, stood huddled together like a flock of sheep. At the sight of Mr Utterson, the housemaid broke into hysterical whimpering; and the cook, crying out ‘Bless God! it’s Mr Utterson,’ ran forward as if to take him in her arms. ‘What, what? Are you all here?’ said the lawyer peevishly. ‘Very irregular, very unseemly; your master would be far from pleased.’ ‘They’re all afraid,’ said Poole. Blank silence followed, no one protesting; only the maid lifted up her voice and now wept loudly. the last night  ‘Hold your tongue!’ Poole said to her, with a ferocity of accent that testified to his own jangled nerves; and indeed, when the girl had so suddenly raised the note of her lamentation, they had all started and turned towards the inner door with faces of dreadful expectation. ‘And now,’ continued the butler, addressing the knife-boy, ‘reach me a candle, and we’ll get this through hands at once.’ And then he begged Mr Utterson to follow him, and led the way to the back garden. ‘Now, sir,’ said he, ‘you come as gently as you can. I want you to hear, and I don’t want you to be heard. And see here, sir, if by any chance he was to ask you in, don’t go.’ Mr Utterson’s nerves, at this unlooked-for termination, gave a jerk that nearly threw him from his balance; but he re-collected his courage and followed the butler into the laboratory building and through the surgical theatre, with its lumber of crates and bottles, to the foot of the stair. Here Poole motioned him to stand on one side and listen; while he himself, setting down the candle and making a great and obvious call on his resolution, mounted the steps and knocked with a somewhat uncertain hand on the red baize of the cabinet door. ‘Mr Utterson, sir, asking to see you,’ he called; and even as he did so, once more violently signed to the lawyer to give ear. A voice answered from within: ‘Tell him I cannot see anyone,’ it said complainingly. ‘Thank you, sir,’ said Poole, with a note of something like triumph in his voice; and taking up his candle, he led Mr Utterson back across the yard and into the great kitchen, where the fire was out and the beetles were leaping on the floor. ‘Sir,’ he said, looking Mr Utterson in the eyes, ‘was that my master’s voice?’ ‘It seems much changed,’ replied the lawyer, very pale, but giving look for look. ‘Changed? Well, yes, I think so,’ said the butler. ‘Have I been twenty years in this man’s house, to be deceived about his voice? No, sir; master’s made away with – he was made away with, eight days ago, when we heard him cry out upon the name of God; and who’s in there instead of him, and why it stays there, is a thing that cries to Heaven, Mr Utterson!’  dr jekyll and mr hyde ‘This is a very strange tale, Poole; this is rather a wild tale, my man,’ said Mr Utterson, biting his finger. ‘Suppose it were as you suppose, supposing Dr Jekyll to have been – well, murdered, what could induce the murderer to stay? That won’t hold water; it doesn’t commend itself to reason.’ ‘Well, Mr Utterson, you are a hard man to satisfy, but I’ll do it yet,’ said Poole. ‘All this last week ( you must know) him, or it, or whatever it is that lives in that cabinet, has been crying night and day for some sort of medicine and cannot get it to his mind. It was sometimes his way – the master’s, that is – to write his orders on a sheet of paper and throw it on the stair. We’ve had nothing else this week back; nothing but papers, and a closed door, and the very meals left there to be smuggled in when nobody was looking. Well, sir, every day, ay, and twice and thrice in the same day, there have been orders and complaints, and I have been sent flying to all the wholesale chemists in town. Every time I brought the stuff back, there would be another paper telling me to return it, because it was not pure, and another order to a different firm. This drug is wanted bitter bad, sir, whatever for.’ ‘Have you any of these papers?’ asked Mr Utterson. Poole felt in his pocket and handed out a crumpled note, which the lawyer, bending nearer to the candle, carefully examined. Its contents ran thus: ‘Dr Jekyll presents his compliments to Messrs Maw. He assures them that their last sample is impure and quite useless for his present purpose. In the year —, Dr J. purchased a somewhat large quantity from Messrs M. He now begs them to search with the most sedulous care, and should any of the same quality be left, to forward it to him at once. Expense is no consideration. The importance of this to Dr J. can hardly be exaggerated.’ So far the letter had run composedly enough, but here with a sudden splutter of the pen, the writer’s emotion had broken loose. ‘For God’s sake,’ he had added, ‘find me some of the old.’ ‘This is a strange note,’ said Mr Utterson; and then sharply, ‘How do you come to have it open?’ ‘The man at Maw’s was main angry, sir, and he threw it back to me like so much dirt,’ returned Poole. the last night  ‘This is unquestionably the doctor’s hand, do you know?’ resumed the lawyer. ‘I thought it looked like it,’ said the servant rather sulkily; and then, with another voice, ‘But what matters hand of write,’ he said. ‘I’ve seen him!’ ‘Seen him?’ repeated Mr Utterson. ‘Well?’ ‘That’s it!’ said Poole. ‘It was this way. I came suddenly into the theatre from the garden. It seems he had slipped out to look for this drug or whatever it is; for the cabinet door was open, and there he was at the far end of the room digging among the crates. He looked up when I came in, gave a kind of cry, and whipped upstairs into the cabinet. It was but for one minute that I saw him, but the hair stood upon my head like quills. Sir, if that was my master, why had he a mask upon his face? If it was my master, why did he cry out like a rat, and run from me? I have served him long enough. And then . . .’ the man paused and passed his hand over his face. ‘These are all very strange circumstances,’ said Mr Utterson, ‘but I think I begin to see daylight. Your master, Poole, is plainly seized with one of those maladies that both torture and deform the sufferer;¹ hence, for aught I know, the alteration of his voice; hence the mask and his avoidance of his friends; hence his eagerness to find this drug, by means of which the poor soul retains some hope of ultimate recovery – God grant that he be not deceived! There is myexplanation; it is sad enough, Poole, ay, and appalling to consider; but it is plain and natural, hangs well together and delivers us from all exorbitant alarms.’ ‘Sir,’ said the butler, turning to a sort of mottled pallor, ‘that thing was not my master, and there’s the truth. My master’ – here he looked round him and began to whisper – ‘is a tall fine build of a man, and this was more of a dwarf.’ Utterson attempted to protest. ‘O, sir,’ cried Poole, ‘do you think I do not know my master after twenty years? do you think I do not know where his head comes to in the cabinet door, where I saw him every morning of my life? No, sir, that thing in the mask was never Doctor Jekyll – God knows what it was, but it was never Doctor Jekyll; and it is the belief of my heart that there was murder done.’  dr jekyll and mr hyde ‘Poole,’ replied the lawyer, ‘if you say that, it will become my duty to make certain. Much as I desire to spare your master’s feelings, much as I am puzzled by this note which seems to prove him to be still alive, I shall consider it my duty to break in that door.’ ‘Ah, Mr Utterson, that’s talking!’ cried the butler. ‘And now comes the second question,’ resumed Utterson: ‘Who is going to do it?’ ‘Why, you and me, sir,’ was the undaunted reply. ‘That is very well said,’ returned the lawyer; ‘and whatever comes of it, I shall make it my business to see you are no loser.’ ‘There is an axe in the theatre,’ continued Poole; ‘and you might take the kitchen poker for yourself.’ The lawyer took that rude but weighty instrument into his hand, and balanced it. ‘Do you know, Poole,’ he said, looking up, ‘that you and I are about to place ourselves in a position of some peril?’ ‘You may say so, sir, indeed,’ returned the butler. ‘It is well, then, that we should be frank,’ said the other. ‘We both think more than we have said; let us make a clean breast. This masked figure that you saw, did you recognize it?’ ‘Well, sir, it went so quick, and the creature was so doubled up, that I could hardly swear to that,’ was the answer. ‘But if you mean, was it Mr Hyde? – why, yes, I think it was! You see, it was much of the same bigness; and it had the same quick light way with it; and then who else could have got in by the laboratory door? You have not forgot, sir, that at the time of the murder he had still the key with him? But that’s not all. I don’t know, Mr Utterson, if ever you met this Mr Hyde?’ ‘Yes,’ said the lawyer, ‘I once spoke with him.’ ‘Then you must know as well as the rest of us that there was something queer about that gentleman – something that gave a man a turn – I don’t know rightly how to say it, sir, beyond this: that you felt it in your marrow kind of cold and thin.’ ‘I own I felt something of what you describe,’ said Mr Utterson. ‘Quite so, sir,’ returned Poole. ‘Well, when that masked thing like a monkey jumped from among the chemicals and whipped into the cabinet, it went down my spine like ice. ‘O, I know it’s not evidence, the last night  Mr Utterson; I’m book-learned enough for that; but a man has his feelings, and I give you my bible-word it was Mr Hyde!’ ‘Ay, ay,’ said the lawyer. ‘My fears incline to the same point. Evil, I fear, founded – evil was sure to come – of that connection. Ay, truly, I believe you; I believe poor Harry is killed; and I believe his murderer (for what purpose, God alone can tell) is still lurking in his victim’s room. Well, let our name be vengeance. Call Bradshaw.’ The footman came at the summons, very white and nervous. ‘Pull yourself together, Bradshaw,’ said the lawyer. ‘This suspense, I know, is telling upon all of you; but it is now our intention to make an end of it. Poole, here, and I are going to force our way into the cabinet. If all is well, my shoulders are broad enough to bear the blame. Meanwhile, lest anything should really be amiss, or any malefactor seek to escape by the back, you and the boy must go round the corner with a pair of good sticks, and take your post at the laboratory door. We give you ten minutes, to get to your stations.’ As Bradshaw left, the lawyer looked at his watch. ‘And now, Poole, let us get to ours,’ he said; and taking the poker under his arm, he led the way into the yard. The scud had banked over the moon, and it was now quite dark. The wind, which only broke in puffs and draughts into that deep well of building, tossed the light of the candle to and fro about their steps, until they came into the shelter of the theatre, where they sat down silently to wait. London hummed solemnly all around; but nearer at hand, the stillness was only broken by the sound of a footfall moving to and fro along the cabinet floor. ‘So it will walk all day, sir,’ whispered Poole; ‘ay, and the better part of the night. Only when a new sample comes from the chemist, there’s a bit of a break. Ah, it’s an ill-conscience that’s such an enemy to rest! Ah, sir, there’s blood foully shed in every step of it! But hark again, a little closer – put your heart in your ears, Mr Utterson, and tell me, is that the doctor’s foot?’ The steps fell lightly and oddly, with a certain swing, for all they went so slowly; it was different indeed from the heavy creaking tread of Henry Jekyll. Utterson sighed. ‘Is there never anything else?’ he asked. Poole nodded. ‘Once,’ he said. ‘Once I heard it weeping!’  dr jekyll and mr hyde ‘Weeping? how that?’ said the lawyer, conscious of a sudden chill of horror. ‘Weeping like a woman or a lost soul,’ said the butler. ‘I came away with that upon my heart, that I could have wept too.’ But now the ten minutes drew to an end. Poole disinterred the axe from under a stack of packing straw; the candle was set upon the nearest table to light them to the attack; and they drew near with bated breath to where that patient foot was still going up and down, up and down, in the quiet of the night. ‘Jekyll,’ cried Utterson, with a loud voice, ‘I demand to see you.’ He paused a moment, but there came no reply. ‘I give you fair warning, our suspicions are aroused, and I must and shall see you,’ he resumed; ‘if not by fair means, then by foul – if not of your consent, then by brute force!’ ‘Utterson,’ said the voice, ‘for God’s sake, have mercy!’ ‘Ah, that’s not Jekyll’s voice – it’s Hyde’s!’ cried Utterson. ‘Down with the door, Poole.’ Poole swung the axe over his shoulder; the blow shook the building, and the red baize door leaped against the lock and hinges. A dismal screech, as of mere animal terror, rang from the cabinet. Up went the axe again, and again the panels crashed and the flame bounded; four times the blow fell; but the wood was tough and the fittings were of excellent workmanship; and it was not until the fifth, that the lock burst in sunder and the wreck of the door fell inwards on the carpet. The besiegers, appalled by their own riot and the stillness that had succeeded, stood back a little and peered in. There lay the cabinet before their eyes in the quiet lamplight, a good fire glowing and chattering on the hearth, the kettle singing its thin strain, a drawer or two open, papers neatly set forth on the business table, and nearer the fire, the things laid out for tea: the quietest room, you would have said, and, but for the glazed presses full of chemicals, the most commonplace that night in London. Right in the midst there lay the body of a man sorely contorted and still twitching. They drew near on tiptoe, turned it on its back and beheld the face of Edward Hyde. He was dressed in clothes far too large for him, clothes of the doctor’s bigness; the cords of his face still the last night  moved with a semblance of life, but life was quite gone; and by the crushed phial in the hand and the strong smell of kernels² that hung upon the air, Utterson knew that he was looking on the body of a self-destroyer. ‘We have come too late,’ he said sternly, ‘whether to save or punish. Hyde is gone to his account; and it only remains for us to find the body of your master.’ The far greater proportion of the building was occupied by the theatre, which filled almost the whole ground storey and was lighted from above, and by the cabinet, which formed an upper storey at one end and looked upon the court. A corridor joined the theatre to the door on the bystreet; and with this, the cabinet communicated separately by a second flight of stairs. There were besides a few dark closets and a spacious cellar. All these they now thoroughly examined. Each closet needed but a glance, for all were empty and all, by the dust that fell from their doors, had stood long unopened. The cellar, indeed, was filled with crazy lumber, mostly dating from the times of the surgeon who was Jekyll’s predecessor; but even as they opened the door, they were advertised of the uselessness of further search, by the fall of a perfect mat of cobweb which had for years sealed up the entrance. Nowhere was there any trace of Henry Jekyll, dead or alive. Poole stamped on the flags of the corridor. ‘He must be buried here,’ he said, hearkening to the sound. ‘Or he may have fled,’ said Utterson, and he turned to examine the door in the bystreet. It was locked; and lying near by on the flags, they found the key, already stained with rust. ‘This does not look like use,’ observed the lawyer. ‘Use!’ echoed Poole. ‘Do you not see, sir, it is broken? much as if a man had stamped on it.’ ‘Ay,’ continued Utterson, ‘and the fractures, too, are rusty.’ The two men looked at each other with a scare. ‘This is beyond me, Poole,’ said the lawyer. ‘Let us go back to the cabinet.’ They mounted the stair in silence, and still with an occasional awestruck glance at the dead body, proceeded more thoroughly to examine the contents of the cabinet. At one table, there were traces of chemical work, various measured heaps of some white salt being  dr jekyll and mr hyde laid on glass saucers, as though for an experiment in which the unhappy man had been prevented.