Edward Mordake is the subject of a disturbing urban legend that has been
widely circulated for decades, which claims that a strange genetic and
psychological condition led Edward to take his own life at a young age.
Edward Mordake legend.
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.
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