The first few clues were hard -- now you can relax (4,4)

'the first few clues were hard now you' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'relax' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'relax' could be 'rest' (I've seen this before) and 'rest' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'easy' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

'can' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?