The Comedies of Plautus, Vol. I (T. Macci Plauti Comoediae)

Furthermore, the different force of pronouns should perhaps be recognized not only from the metric ictus but also from the forms themselves, such that we believe the same subtleties of varied meaning, which exist between the various forms of pronouns in the Romance languages, shine through between mi and mihi, ei and eĭ, huic and huĭc, eius (huius, quoius) and eiius (huiius, quoiius); perhaps even between the faster mode of speaking, opust there is need, etc., and the slower, opus est; although it must be admitted that the scribes of the Middle Ages destroyed the greatest part of such things. Nevertheless, I would like you to believe with me that Plautine verses resonate as an image of the daily speech of the Plautine age.

Given at St. Andrews,
1903

¹ Even then, when Plautus could not reconcile the metric ictus with the accent, I believe the word that has emphasis was accustomed to be marked by its own prosody. For just as in Menaechmi 389 tibi to you, which has both an accent in the sentence and a metric ictus in the verse, is distinguished even by what is called a prosodic hiatus:

so I believe in Rudens 540 the verse began with an anapest, not an iamb:

and in Asinaria 781 deam goddess was similarly pronounced disyllabically: