diff --git a/src/hb-ot-layout-gsubgpos.hh b/src/hb-ot-layout-gsubgpos.hh
index 7adf753b8..609c6b689 100644
--- a/src/hb-ot-layout-gsubgpos.hh
+++ b/src/hb-ot-layout-gsubgpos.hh
@@ -597,13 +597,6 @@ struct hb_ot_apply_context_t :
       unsigned stop = num_items - 1;
       if (c->buffer->flags & HB_BUFFER_FLAG_PRODUCE_UNSAFE_TO_CONCAT)
         stop = 1 - 1;
-
-      /* When looking back, limit how far we search; this function is mostly
-       * used for looking back for base glyphs when attaching marks. If we
-       * don't limit, we can get O(n^2) behavior where n is the number of
-       * consecutive marks. */
-      stop = (unsigned) hb_max ((int) stop, (int) idx - HB_MAX_CONTEXT_LENGTH);
-
       while (idx > stop)
       {
 	idx--;