diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 6f3048d61..f00b168ee 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@
 
 * `expr_label()` now has back-compatility with respect to changes made by R version 4.4 and `is.atomic(NULL)` (#1655)
 
+* Performance improvement in `.rlang_cli_compat()` (#1657).
+
 # rlang 1.1.1
 
 * `englue()` now allows omitting `{{`. This is to make it easier to
diff --git a/R/standalone-cli.R b/R/standalone-cli.R
index fc668fec4..a284967bb 100644
--- a/R/standalone-cli.R
+++ b/R/standalone-cli.R
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # ---
 # repo: r-lib/rlang
 # file: standalone-cli.R
-# last-updated: 2022-09-23
+# last-updated: 2023-10-06
 # license: https://unlicense.org
 # ---
 #
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@
 #
 # ## Changelog
 #
+# 2023-10-06:
+#
+# * Speedup in `.rlang_cli_compat()`.
+#
 # 2022-09-23:
 #
 # * `format_` functions now use `cli::format_inline()` instead of
@@ -451,8 +455,12 @@ cli_escape <- function(x) {
       is_interactive = return(rlang::is_interactive)
     )
 
-    # Make sure rlang knows about "x" and "i" bullets
-    if (utils::packageVersion("rlang") >= "0.4.2") {
+    ns <- asNamespace("rlang")
+
+    # Make sure rlang knows about "x" and "i" bullets.
+    # Pull from namespace rather than via `utils::packageVersion()`
+    # to avoid slowdown (#1657)
+    if (ns[[".__NAMESPACE__."]][["spec"]][["version"]] >= "0.4.2") {
       switch(
         fn,
         abort = return(rlang::abort),