What masques, what music? How shall we beguile
The lazy time if not with some delight.
V, 1, 35.
An “Abridgement” appears to be an entertainment consisting of a dramatic performance of short duration to while away the time. Another meaning was a compendium of a larger work with the details abridged. I cannot find any contemporary use of this term, as it is employed by Shakespeare.
AUDITOR.
I’ll be an auditor; an actor, too, perhaps.
III, 1, 81.
EIGHT AND SIX. PROLOGUE.
QUINCE.