Note 1717 — BOOK IV THE PLAY-HOUSES (continued 5)

R. J., prol. 12, ‘the two hours’ traffic of our stage’; Alchemist, prol. 1, ‘these two short hours’; Hen. VIII, prol. 13, ‘two short hours’; T. N. K., prol. 28, ‘Sceanes ... worth two houres travell’; Heywood, Apology, 11 (Beeston’s c. v.), ‘two houres well spent’; Barth. Fair, ind., ‘the space of two hours and a half and somewhat more’. Perhaps plays tended to grow shorter. Fenton (1574) and Northbrooke (1577–8) give ‘two or three houres’, and Whetstone (1578) three hours (cf. App. C), but Dekker (cf. p. 533, n. 3) seems to regard three hours as an exceptionally long period.