· · · · · · · · · · · ·
E firio el Rey en la mesura · e fizola sonar,
Pone la á su orella · por oir e guardar;
Dijoles, e no quiso · mas dudar,
Segun dize la mesura, · berdad puede estar.
MS.
It is Joseph who is here called king, as he is often in the poem,—once he is called emperor, though the Pharaoh of the period is fully recognized; and this costly measure, made of gold and precious stones, corresponds to the cup of the Hebrew account, and is found, like that, in the sack of Benjamin, where it had been put by Joseph, (after he had secretly revealed himself to Benjamin,) as the means of seizing Benjamin and detaining him in Egypt, with his own consent, but without giving his false brethren the reason for it.
Dijo Jusuf: “Ermanos, · perdoneos el Criador,
Del tuerto que me tenedes, · perdoneos el Señor,