Edward Mordrake (Edward Modrake)
Edward Mordrake is the subject of an Urban Legend who was, according to legend, born in the 19th century, heir to the English peerage, and had an extra face on the back of his head.
The duplicate face could not see, eat or speak out loud, but it was said to "sneer when Edward was happy" and "smile when Edward would weep"
Mordrake repeatedly begged doctors to have his "Demon face" removed, claiming that it would whispered things that "were only spoke of in hell" at night. No doctor would attempt it.
According to the legend Mordrake committed suicide at the age of 23.
"Lest it continues it's dreadful whisperings in my grave"
The story of Mordrake certainly appeals to the popular imagination, but the question dying to be asked still remains unanswered.
Was Mordrake a real person?
The search for more information led researchers to an old book, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, Published in October 1896.
It was authored by two American doctors, George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle, who collected together all kinds of bizarre medical cases, including the story of Edward Mordrake which they presented as follows:
"One of the weirdest as well as most melancholy stories of human deformity is that of Edward Mordake, 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 beautiful girl, "lovely as a dream, hideous as a devil". The female face was a mere mask, "occupying only a small portion of the posterior part of the skull, yet exhibiting every sign of intelligence, of a malignant sort, however". It 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 Mordake 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 Mordake 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."
From a medical perspective the story of Edward Mordrake could possibly be true, or rather not impossible. It would demonstrate the medical phenomenon known as Craniopagus Parasiticus , which as Wikipedia puts it, happens when " A parasitic twin head with an undeveloped body is attached to the head of a developed twin. " Or it could be a case of Disprosopus (also known as craniofacial duplication), which is the result of abnormal protein activity, not twinning. Either way, it's an extremely rare phenomenon, and those affected by such conditions typically don't live long past childbirth.
Upon a search for the source that Gould and Pyle relied upon I ran across an article written by Poet Charles Lotin Hildreth that ran in American papers in 1895, approximately a year before the publication of Gould and Pyle's book.
The passage "Weirdest as well as most melancholy " Story of Edward Mordrake was found to be Gould and Pyles "lay source" Since it is word for word what was written in Anomalies .
So we should add Edward Mordake to the list of 19th Century newspaper hoaxes that continued to fool people for decades (or in this case, over a century) after their publication
In other words Mordrake never existed, he was the literary creation of Charles Lotin Hildreth.
Thanks for reading this weeks Freaky Friday post
XoXo - Little Dot
