_Argumenta._--These are in _senarii_, and give a summary of each play. Two sets are found. The first set are acrostic, and are extant for all the plays except the _Vidularia_ and the _Bacchides_. The second series was probably written by Sulpicius Apollinaris in the second century A.D. There are only five of them extant in the MSS., and fragments of other two. _Prologues._--These (which were usual in the Old and the New Comedy) gave the name of the piece and the author, the original and its author, the scene of the play, and a partial list of characters. In the Prologue also the poet often asked the favour of the audience. Prologues to fourteen plays are extant. The part of the prologue Plautus (like the New Comedy) assigned either to a god, as in the _Rudens_ to Arcturus, or to one of the characters, as in the _Mercator_ to a youth (cf. _Mil._ and _Amph._), or to an actor addressing the audience in the name of the poet, as in the _Truculentus_. All the prologues have suffered from interpolation, but those of _Amph._, _Merc._, _Rud._, and _Trin._, and the second parts of those of _Mil._ and _Aul._, are founded on what Plautus wrote. The prologues in _Cas._, _Poen._, and _Capt._, are due to later hands. That the prologues are interpolated is shown by their diction; the wit is often poor, and the language un-Plautine, or imitated closely from Plautus' genuine works. The prologues in their present form probably date from a period shortly after that in which Terence flourished, when there was a want of new plays, and people went back to Plautus. This is shown by the references to fixed seats for the spectators (_Poen._ 15, _Amph._ 65, and _Capt._ 11), which were forbidden by a S.C. passed in B.C. 154, when Cassius Longinus began to build a theatre of stone--a law that was not repealed till some years later. Cf. _Capt._ 11, 'Negat hercle ille ultimis accensus. Cedito: si non ubi sedeas locus est, est ubi ambules.' _The Acts._--The plays of Plautus probably went on with few breaks, during which the audience were entertained with music. Cf. _Pseud._ 573, 'Tibicen vos interea hic delectaverit.' _Diverbium and Canticum._--There was no chorus in Roman comedy, but part of the play was set to music and sung to the flute. Some MSS. denote this by C (Canticum); while DV (usually placed only over iambic senarii) denotes dialogue or soliloquy (Diverbium). Iambic senarii were spoken; other metres were sung; but the scenes in septenarii stood midway between the dialogue and the _canticum_. Only about a fourth of Plautus' verses are in iambic senarii, while in Terence, who followed Menander in this respect, about half of the verses are in this form.