W. S. Gilbert on Shakespeare

Hmm. I've stumbled across something written about Shakespeare by W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan fame, and I don't know if he's funning or serious, or some combination of the two. (Usually he made serious points by being funny, of course, but in this case I'm not sure.) According to info on this page (which also features links to other short prose by Gilbert), Unappreciated Shakespeare was originally published in Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, Christmas Number, 9 December 1882 and reprinted in Foggerty's Fairy and other tales, London: George Routledge and Sons, 1890.