XANTHUS
(another name for the SCAMANDER). One of the rivers of ancient Troy (q.v.).
Homer, Iliad xx. 74, says that it was called X. by the Gods and Scamander by men.
In Peele's Arraignment ii. 2, Juno
says, "X. shall run liquid gold for thee to wash thy hands." In Marlowe's Dido
ii. 1, Aeneas says, "That town there should be Troy, yon Ida's hill, There's X.
stream, because here's Priamus." In Taming
of a Shrew, Haz., p. 513, Ferando says, "More fair and radiant is my bonny
Kate Than silver X. when he doth embrace The ruddy Simois at Ida's feet." In Nero
iv. 1, the Emperor says of Poppaea: "Such Venus is when on the sandy shore Of
X. or on Ida's pleasant green She leads the dance." In Locrine
iii. 4, 9, the hero says of the God of War "He drove the Argives over X. streams."
Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9, 35, makes the X. and the Scamander separate rivers; the
Trojan dames, he says, "Saw the fields of fair Scamander strown With carcases
of noble warriors . . . . And X. sandy banks with blood all overflown."
XERES
Pronounced Sheres (see SHERRIS). In Devonshire
i. 2, the Merchant says, "Our Sherryes merchants, though few of us be here, shall
soundly pay to the furnishing of this navy." The trial in the last Act is held
at Sherryes.