Empson’s Buddha
Michael Wood, 4 May 2017
“... effect.’ Many of them have slit eyes because round eyes ‘would give the coy surprise of George Robey’. The cross-cultural juggling here is pretty amazing: ancient Eastern artists are said to be avoiding an effect a 20th-century English comedian made famous. ‘I always expected surprise’ was Robey’s verbal version of what his face said. But ... ”