ONE sign of a great work of poetry is when another poet writes in praise of it. The English romantic poet John Keats was so taken by Shakespeare’s King Lear (1603-1606) that he composed the sonnet (十四行诗) On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again (1818). The sonnet features the line, “the bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit”. For Keats, Shakespeare’s play was delicious, like a piece of fruit, but it was also so morally (道德上地) shocking that it tasted bitter.