diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 281b0f6..e785aae 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ jobs:
       matrix:
         # Pin to 20.04 for 3.6: https://github.com/actions/setup-python/issues/544
         os: [ubuntu-20.04, macos-latest, windows-latest]
-        python-version: ['2.7', '3.5', '3.6', '3.7', '3.8', '3.9', '3.10', '3.11']
+        python-version: ['3.5', '3.6', '3.7', '3.8', '3.9', '3.10', '3.11']
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
 
     steps:
diff --git a/srt.py b/srt.py
index 9d0b586..36287b4 100755
--- a/srt.py
+++ b/srt.py
@@ -74,6 +74,10 @@
     re.DOTALL,
 )
 
+# Used by _iter_srt_matches: SRT_REGEX, but only at positions where no match
+# could have started one character earlier.
+_SRT_REGEX_NOT_AFTER_WS = re.compile(r"(?<!\s)" + SRT_REGEX.pattern, re.DOTALL)
+
 ZERO_TIMEDELTA = timedelta(0)
 
 # Info message if truthy return -> Function taking a Subtitle, skip if True
@@ -126,7 +130,7 @@ def __hash__(self):
         return hash(frozenset(vars(self).items()))
 
     def __eq__(self, other):
-        return vars(self) == vars(other)
+        return isinstance(other, Subtitle) and vars(self) == vars(other)
 
     def __lt__(self, other):
         return (self.start, self.end, self.index) < (
@@ -370,7 +374,7 @@ def parse(srt, ignore_errors=False):
     if isinstance(srt, FILE_TYPES):
         srt = srt.read()
 
-    for match in SRT_REGEX.finditer(srt):
+    for match in _iter_srt_matches(srt):
         actual_start = match.start()
         _check_contiguity(srt, expected_start, actual_start, ignore_errors)
         raw_index, raw_start, raw_end, proprietary, content = match.groups()
@@ -406,6 +410,29 @@ def parse(srt, ignore_errors=False):
     _check_contiguity(srt, expected_start, len(srt), ignore_errors)
 
 
+def _iter_srt_matches(srt):
+    """
+    Yield the same matches as ``SRT_REGEX.finditer(srt)``, in linear rather
+    than quadratic time on long whitespace runs that contain no subtitle.
+
+    ``SRT_REGEX`` starts with ``\\s*``, so if a match starts at position ``p``
+    and ``srt[p - 1]`` is whitespace, a match also starts at ``p - 1``. The
+    leftmost match at or after ``pos`` therefore either starts at ``pos`` or
+    at a position not preceded by whitespace. ``finditer`` retries every
+    position inside a whitespace run, and each retry rescans the rest of the
+    run; ``_SRT_REGEX_NOT_AFTER_WS`` skips those positions in constant time.
+    """
+    pos = 0
+    while pos <= len(srt):
+        match = SRT_REGEX.match(srt, pos)
+        if match is None:
+            match = _SRT_REGEX_NOT_AFTER_WS.search(srt, pos + 1)
+            if match is None:
+                return
+        yield match
+        pos = match.end()
+
+
 def _check_contiguity(srt, expected_start, actual_start, warn_only):
     """
     If ``warn_only`` is False, raise :py:class:`SRTParseError` with diagnostic
diff --git a/tests/test_srt.py b/tests/test_srt.py
index 05608e0..33b7f3a 100644
--- a/tests/test_srt.py
+++ b/tests/test_srt.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import os
 import re
 import string
+import time
 from io import StringIO
 
 import pytest
@@ -241,6 +242,12 @@ def test_subtitle_inequality(sub_1):
     assert sub_1 != sub_2
 
 
+@given(subtitles())
+def test_subtitle_inequality_to_non_matching_type(sub_1):
+    assert sub_1 != None
+    assert sub_1 != 1
+
+
 @given(subtitles())
 def test_subtitle_from_scratch_equality(subtitle):
     srt_block = subtitle.to_srt()
@@ -765,3 +772,24 @@ def test_parse_file_with_missing_index(input_subs):  # cf. issue #51
 
     # ...and sort the same.
     assert srt.compose(subs_no_index) == srt.compose(subs_zero_index)
+
+
+@given(st.text(alphabet=" \t\r\n0123456789:,->x", max_size=60))
+def test_iter_srt_matches_same_as_finditer(text):
+    # _iter_srt_matches is a faster finditer; it must find exactly the same
+    # matches, including on garbage and whitespace between subtitles.
+    subs_text = "1\n00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:02,000\nhello\n\n"
+    for srt_data in (text, subs_text + text, text + subs_text):
+        expected = [(m.span(), m.groups()) for m in srt.SRT_REGEX.finditer(srt_data)]
+        actual = [(m.span(), m.groups()) for m in srt._iter_srt_matches(srt_data)]
+        assert actual == expected
+
+
+def test_parse_long_whitespace_is_not_quadratic():
+    # Each finditer retry inside a whitespace run used to rescan the rest of
+    # the run: about 20 seconds for 32000 spaces.
+    for srt_data in (" " * 32000, "\n" * 32000, "x" + " " * 32000):
+        start = time.perf_counter()
+        subs = list(srt.parse(srt_data, ignore_errors=True))
+        assert time.perf_counter() - start < 1
+        assert subs == []