Mixed Genre in The Convent of Pleasure

The theater scenes in Cavendish's Convent of Pleasure are very strange. The reader encounters a didactic social drama, a pastoral, and a Classical work that resembles a masque or pageant. Are we meant to take these scenes seriously, or do they parody earlier commonplaces of theatrical genre? Since the marriage in Act V, Scene III follows this series of staged conversations between Lady Happy and the Princess, is it possible that it is simply an illusion as well? When the play first begins, the prologue mentions the brevity of the performance. This point undoubtedly reflects the length of Cavendish's plays. Does this practice belong only to Cavendish, or were Restoration plays simply much shorter than those of the Jacobean and Caroline periods?