Alexander Dyce, A General Glossary to Shakespeare's Works

abridgement “have you for this evening?—What,” A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, v. 1. 39 ; “look, where my abridgement comes,” HAMLET, ii. 2. 415. In the first of these passages abridgement means a dramatic performance, and in the second it is applied to the players, as being, I presume, the persons who represent anabridgement: “By abridgement our author may mean a dramatic performance, which crowds the events of years into a few hours. . . . It may be worth while, however, to observe, that in the North the word abatement had the same meaning as diversion or amusement. So, in the Prologue to the 5th Book of G. Douglas's version of the Æneid, ‘Ful mony mery abaitmentis followis here’” (STEEVENS) .