Playwright: I see Earnest initially getting cold feet (9)

I haven't cracked this one yet — but the brilliant team at Fifteensquared have:

charade of COWARD (Noel Coward – playwright – wrote Brief Encounters among other plays) + I (from the clue) C (text speak – unindicated) + E (Earnest initially) – and I think the Earnest is a misdirection to Oscar Wilde’s Importance of being Earnest.