I'd argue he studied Shakespeare more than anyone else ever.
I guess this is a joke, and not serious but the way it is quoted seems to be a bit anti-intellectual. Without further context this share-pic implies Shakespeare didn’t read famous poets that lived before his time and not doing this made him a brilliant playwright. But he did, as you can see in the metric fuck-ton of references to classical plays in his work.
You're reading way too far into it.
The joke comes from the fact that people say you need to study Shakespeare in order to be clever. However, Shakespeare did not study Shakespeare. He is just making a very simple joke making fun of that fact. It's not more than that. There is no further implication. It is a simple play on words.
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