Edward Mordake

For the American Horror Story: Freak Show episode, see Edward Mordrake (American Horror Story).

‘’’Edward Mordake’’’ (sometimes spelled ‘’’Edward Mordrake’’’) is a fictional character created by science fiction writer Charles Lotin Hildreth in 1895. Hildreth claimed that Mordake, heir to an English peerage, had an extra face on the back of his head. The duplicate face could neither eat nor speak out loud but was seen to "smile and sneer while Mordake was weeping." Mordake reportedly begged doctors to have his "Demon face" removed, claiming that it whispered to him at night, but no doctor would attempt it. He committed suicide when he was 23 years old. The description of Mordake's condition is somewhat similar to that of Chang Tzu Ping, a 20th-century Chinese man who had his second face surgically removed. He died because of the second head.

Earliest reference

The first known description of Mordake is found in an 1895 Boston Post article authored by fiction writer Charles Lotin Hildreth. The article describes a number of cases of what Hildreth refers to as "human freaks," including a woman who had the tail of fish, a man with the body of a spider, a man who was half-crab, and Edward Mordake. 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.

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 Mordake. 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 Mordake'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), 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:

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 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 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.

In popular culture

Mordake has been the subject of various texts, plays, and songs:

• Mordake 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.
• Tom Waits wrote a song about Mordake titled "Poor Edward" for his album Alice (2002).
• In 2001, Spanish writer Irene Gracia published Mordake o la condición infame, a novel based in Mordake's story.
• A US thriller film named Edward Mordrake, and based on the story, is currently in development.
• 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.
• There is an Internet meme currently circulating that implies Edward Mordrake is a real person.

See also

• Craniopagus parasiticus
• Diprosopus
• Polycephaly

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.