Penny Dreadful (TV Series)

Verbis Diablo (2015)

Simon Russell Beale: Ferdinand Lyle

Photos 

Quotes 

• [Ethan Chandler and Ferdinand Lyle have a discussion about wolves] 

  Ferdinand Lyle : On battle shields the heraldic iconography's not actually meant to strike terror in the opponent as you'd think. Rather, it's meant to evoke protection. The figures are more spirit guides and totems of significance to the owner. Dragons and griffons and the like.

  Ethan Chandler : So the wolves will protect.

  Ferdinand Lyle : Yes, grisly bit of business. But that's why they call them the Dark Ages.

  Ethan Chandler : I saw wolves where I grew up, in the New Mexico territory. Timber wolves. Enormous things.

  Ferdinand Lyle : Oh?

  Ethan Chandler : They hunted in packs. They'd isolate a cow or sheep or what have you by barking and growling. But when they finally attacked, it was completely silent. They'd... they'd tear out the windpipe first. You couldn't hear anything, but the blood splashing on the ground. They didn't protect anything. They just fed.

• [Ferdinand Lyle tells the story of the Verbis Diablo to the group] 

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : So you're the Chappy who's going to translate the mythical language?

  Ferdinand Lyle : Not so mythical as you think, young man. The Verbis Diablo, the Devil's Tongue, has roots as old as Aramaic, and likely much older. It was an oral tradition for the most part, like most now dead languages. We haven't entirely lost it, we've just forgotten it.

  Sir Malcolm Murray : And if I were to tell you it's spoken now? In London?

  Ferdinand Lyle : I should express surprise, but not complete bafflement. Note I said it was an oral tradition for the most part. There is one written example of the language. Relics of a sort. In a long-forgotten box deep in the archives of the British Museum, and I can't imagine anyone has looked at them in years. In the 11th century, a Carthusian monk known to us as Brother Gregory began to lose his mind. He said he was possessed by a demon, perhaps the father of all demons, the fallen angel himself. In any event, this demon spoke to him in the Verbis Diablo. Brother Gregory wrote down what it said on whatever was to hand. Having nothing like science to consult, his brothers finally pronounced Brother Gregory mad, and locked him away. But his lunatic ravings are now in the British Museum. The only existing written example of this seemingly dead language. If we seek to understand the Verbis Diablo, we must start there.

• [Ferdinand Lyle finishes the story of the Verbis Diablo] 

  Vanessa Ives : What happened to Brother Gregory?

  Ferdinand Lyle : Ah. Locked away by his brothers, the visitations from the demon did not abate. They were deep within him. A curse, if you will. Seemingly inescapable.

  Vanessa Ives : And?

  Ferdinand Lyle : After years of confinement, and torment, they were finally convinced that he was not in fact mad, but possessed by the devil. They burned him at the stake.

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : God love religion.

• Ferdinand Lyle : The British Museum holds the world's largest collection of historical pornography. Aside from the Vatican, of course.

• [Ferdinand Lyle meets Ethan Chandler for the first time] 

  Ferdinand Lyle : Mr. Chandler! You are so very tall. You render me Lilliputian.

  Ethan Chandler : Hello, Mr. Lyle.

  Ferdinand Lyle : American! I am undone.

  [Ferdinand giggles all over] 

• [Ferdinand Lyle and Ethan Chandler joke about bringing Chandler's guns to some investigation work] 

  Ferdinand Lyle : [Ferdinand eyes Mr. Chandler]  Will you bring your gun belt?

  Ethan Chandler : Both guns.

  [Ferdinand quietly chuckles]