Crossword Genius

Shakespeare nasty about Romeo (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

bard

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'shakespeare' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'nasty about romeo' is the wordplay.
'nasty' becomes 'bad' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'romeo' becomes 'r' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'bad' placed around 'r' is 'BARD'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for bard that I've seen before include "Shakespeare" , "Traditional poet" , "Animal; cruel person" , "Celtic poet" , "Gray, perhaps" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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