Something Laugh or Cry or Maybe Just Beg Again

British urban legend

Edward Mordake (sometimes spelled Mordrake) is the apocryphal bailiwick of an urban legend who was built-in in the 19th century as the heir to an English peerage with a face at the dorsum of his caput.^[ane] Co-ordinate to fable, the confront could whisper, laugh or cry. Mordake repeatedly begged doctors to remove it, claiming it whispered bad things to him at night. Mordake committed suicide at the age of 23.

Description [edit]

An account described Mordake's effigy as one with "remarkable grace" and with a face similar to that of an Antinous.^[2] The second face up on the dorsum of Mordake'southward head— supposedly female ^[3] — reportedly had a pair of optics and a mouth that drooled.^[4] The duplicate face could not see, eat or speak, merely was said to "sneer while Mordake was happy" and "grinning while Mordake was weeping".^[5] According to fable, Mordake repeatedly begged doctors to take his "demon face" removed, claiming that at night, it whispered things that "one would only speak about in hell", but no doc would attempt it. This then led to Mordake secluding himself in a room earlier deciding to take his own life at the age of 23.^{[five] [6]}

An account of Mordake's story was detailed in Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine:^[five]

1 of the weirdest, as well every bit the virtually melancholy stories of man deformity, is that of Edward Mordake, said to have been heir to ane of the noblest peerages in England. He never claimed the title, however, and committed suicide in his twenty-tertiary year. He lived his life in complete seclusion, refusing the visits even of the members of his own family. He was a immature 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. Merely upon the back of his head was another face, that of a beautiful daughter, "lovely as a dream, hideous every bit a devil." The female face was a mere mask, "occupying only a small portion of the posterior part of the skull, even so exhibiting every sign of intelligence, of a cancerous 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 phonation was audible, just Mordake avers that he was kept from his rest at night past the hateful whispers of his "devil twin", as he called it, "which never sleeps, but talks to me forever of such things as they just speak of in Hell. No imagination tin conceive the dreadful temptations it sets earlier 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 of the alphabet requesting that the "demon face" might be destroyed before his burying, "lest it continues its dreadful whisperings in my grave." At his ain asking, he was interred in a waste material place, without rock or fable to mark his grave.

Earliest reference [edit]

The start known description of Mordake is found in an 1895 article in The Boston Postal service authored by fiction author Charles Lotin Hildreth.^[seven] The commodity describes a number of cases of what Hildreth refers to as "man freaks", including a woman who had the tail of a fish, a human with the body of a spider, a human being who was one-half-crab, and Edward Mordake. Hildreth claimed to have found these cases described in old reports of the "Royal Scientific Order". Co-ordinate to an commodity in United states Today, the only known "Purple Scientific Society" was founded in 1970 past Jordanian monarchs.^[1] Nada could exist establish in the records of the similarly named Royal Gild of London.^[one] Like many publications of the time, Hildreth's article was not factual, and was likely published by the paper to increase reader involvement. ^[8]

Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [edit]

The 1896 medical encyclopedia Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, co-authored by Dr. George Chiliad. Gould and Dr. David L. Pyle, included an account of Mordake. The account was copied directly from Hildreth'due south commodity, and was credited only to a "lay source". The encyclopedia described the bones morphology of Mordake'south status, but information technology provided no medical diagnosis for the rare deformity. An explanation for the birth defect may have been a grade of craniopagus parasiticus (a parasitic twin caput with an undeveloped body),^[ix] a form of diprosopus (bifurcated craniofacial duplication), or an extreme course of parasitic twin (an unequal conjoined twin).

Meet also [edit]

• Craniopagus parasiticus
• Diprosopus
• Futakuchi-onna
• Janus
• Polycephaly
• Pasqual Piñón

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b c} Wagner, Bayliss (July 22, 2021). "Fact check: Edward Mordake, an English noble with two faces, is a literary creation". Usa Today . Retrieved September xviii, 2021.
2. ^ Pyle, Walter 50. (2015-11-23). Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine: Man Book. 谷月社.
3. ^ Mannix, Daniel P. (2014-11-19). Freaks: We Who Are Not Every bit Others. eNet Press. ISBN9781618867575.
4. ^ Fincke, Gary (2003). Writing Messages for the Blind. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. p. 57. ISBN0814209505.
5. ^ ^{a b c} Gould, George M. (1956). Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. Blacksleet River. pp. 124–125. ISBN978-one-4499-7722-one . Retrieved October 29, 2014.
6. ^ Abani, Chris (2014-01-07). The Secret History of Las Vegas. Penguin. ISBN9780698140189.
7. ^ Hildreth, Charles Lotin (December 8, 1895). "The Wonders of Modern Scientific discipline". Boston Post. Boston. Retrieved March 2, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
8. ^ Boese, Alex (Apr 24, 2015). "Edward Mordake—A Mystery Solved". The Museum of Hoaxes . Retrieved July 2, 2016.
9. ^ Bosmia, Anand N.; Smelser, Luke B.; Griessenauer, Christoph J. (November 7, 2014). "An counterfeit case of craniopagus parasiticus: the legend of Edward Mordake". Kid's Nervous Arrangement. 31 (12): 2211–two. doi:10.1007/s00381-014-2581-half-dozen. PMID 25378260.

External links [edit]

• "Medical Debate: Edward modrake a case of cranipagus parasiticus?". Medchrome. 2014-07-17.
• Pednaud, J. Tithonus (2007-07-06). "Edward Mordrake – 'Poor Edward'". The Man Marvels.
• "Edward Mordake – A Mystery Solved". The Museum of Hoaxes.
• David Emery (xiv November 2017). "FACT Check: Edward Mordrake, the Human with Two Faces". Snopes. Retrieved 16 Dec 2017.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Mordake

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