The French hard-hearted king? (4)

I believe the answer is:

lear

'king?' is the definition.
(Shakespeare's King Lear)

'the french hard-hearted' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'hearted' indicates the central letters.
The middle letters of 'hard' are 'ar'.
'le'+'ar'='LEAR'

(Other definitions for lear that I've seen before include "tragic figure" , "hardly the 7 [NO NONSENSE] type!" , "Playful king and writer of nonsense verse" , "Role at Stratford" , "Tragic Shakespeare king - quite real" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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