Edward Mordake

Edward Mordrake was a fictitious character promoted as real in 1895, said to be heir to an English peerage, who had an extra face on the back of his head. The story was that the duplicate face could neither see nor eat nor speak out loud but was said to "smile while Mordrake was happy" and "sneer while Mordrake was weeping".^[1] In the story, Mordrake repeatedly begged doctors to have his "demon face" removed, claiming that it whispered things that "one would only speak about in hell" at night, but no doctor would attempt it. The story concludes with Mordrake committing suicide at the age of 23.^[1]

Earliest reference

The first known description of Mordrake is found in an 1895 Boston Post article authored by fiction writer Charles Lotin Hildreth.^[2] The article describes a number of cases of what Hildreth refers to as "human freaks", including a woman who had the tail of a fish, a man with the body of a spider, a man who was half-crab, and Edward Mordrake. Hildreth claimed to have found these cases described in old reports of the "Royal Scientific Society". It is unclear whether a society actually existed with this name. Hildreth's article, which also contained other fictional creatures such as the "Fishwomen of Lincoln" and the "Half-human half-crab", was not factual and was probably published by the newspaper as fact simply to increase reader interest.^[3]

In Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine

The 1896 medical encyclopedia Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, co-authored by Dr. George M. Gould and Dr. Walter L. Pyle, included an account of Mordrake. The account was copied directly from Hildreth's article. However, it was credited only to a "lay source". The encyclopedia describes the basic morphology of Mordrake's condition, but it provides no medical diagnosis for the rare deformity. Such a birth defect might have been a form of craniopagus parasiticus (a parasitic twin head with an undeveloped body),^[4] a form of diprosopus (bifurcated craniofacial duplication), or an extreme form of parasitic twin (an unequal conjoined twin).

As told in Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine:^[1]

One of the weirdest as well as most melancholy stories of human deformity is that of Edward Mordrake, said to have been heir to one of the noblest peerages in England. He never claimed the title, however, and committed suicide in his twenty-third year. He lived in complete seclusion, refusing the visits even of the members of his own family. He was a young man of fine attainments, a profound scholar, and a musician of rare ability. His figure was remarkable for its grace, and his face – that is to say, his natural face – was that of an Antinous. But upon the back of his head was another face, that of a man. Some versions say that his "demon twin" was female, but that is impossible as all parasitic twins are of the same sex. The ugly twin, "occupying only a small portion of the posterior part of the skull, yet exhibiting every sign of intelligence, of a malignant sort, however", would be seen to smile and sneer while Mordake was weeping. The eyes would follow the movements of the spectator, and the lips "would gibber without ceasing". No voice was audible, but Mordrake avers that he was kept from his rest at night by the hateful whispers of his "devil twin", as he called it, "which never sleeps, but talks to me forever of such things as they only speak of in Hell. No imagination can conceive the dreadful temptations it sets before me. For some unforgiven wickedness of my forefathers I am knit to this fiend – for a fiend it surely is. I beg and beseech you to crush it out of human semblance, even if I die for it." Such were the words of the hapless Mordrake to Manvers and Treadwell, his physicians. In spite of careful watching, he managed to procure poison, whereof he died, leaving a letter requesting that the "demon face" might be destroyed before his burial, "lest it continues its dreadful whisperings in my grave." At his own request, he was interred in a waste place, without stone or legend to mark his grave.

In popular culture

Mordrake has been the subject of various texts, plays, and songs:^[5]

• Mordrake is featured as the "2 Very Special Cases" on a list of "10 People With Extra Limbs or Digits" in the 1976 edition of The Book of Lists.^[6]
• Tom Waits wrote a song about Mordrake titled "Poor Edward" for his album Alice (2002).^[7]
• In 2001, Spanish writer Irene Gracia published Mordrake o la condición infame, a novel based on Mordrake's story.
• A US thriller film named Edward Mordrake, and based on the story, is reportedly in development. An intended release date has not been provided.^[8]
• Three episodes in the FX anthology series American Horror Story: Freak Show, "Edward Mordrake, Pt. 1", "Edward Mordrake, Pt. 2", and "Curtain Call", feature the character Edward Mordrake, played by Wes Bentley.
• A short film Edward the Damned based on the story for Edward Mordrake was release in 2016. ^[9]

See also

• Craniopagus parasiticus
• Diprosopus
• Polycephaly

References

External links

• "Medical Debate: Edward modrake a case of cranipagus parasiticus?". Medchrome. 
• Pednaud, J. Tithonus. "Edward Mordrake – 'Poor Edward'". The Human Marvels. 
• "Edward Mordake – A Mystery Solved". The Museum of Hoaxes.