Peter Pindar [Dr. Wolcott], The Lousiad, v. (1809).
Xantippe (3 syl.), wife of Socrătês; proverbial for a scolding, nagging, peevish wife. One day, after storming at the philosopher, she emptied a vessel of dirty water on his head, whereupon Socratês simply remarked, “Aye, aye, we always look for rain after thunder.”
Xantippe (3 syl.), daughter of Cimo´nos. She preserved the life of her old father in prison by suckling him. The guard marvelled that the old man held out so long, and, watching for the solution, discovered the fact.
Euphra´sia, daughter of Evander, preserved her aged father while in prison in a similar manner. (See Grecian Daughter.)
Xavier (François), Florentine priest, son of a cameo cutter, who finds on the shore of Lake Superior an uncut onyx stone, called by Black Beaver, the Indian owner, “the devil-stone.” Black Beaver will not sell it, but his daughter, Marie, in love with Xavier, persuades him to offer it to the Virgin. Xavier engraves upon it an exquisite representation of Venus rising from the sea. Black Beaver, seeing his daughter pining for love of Xavier, offers her to the chief priest of the mission as Xavier’s wife, and learns that Romish priests cannot marry. He drinks heavily all night, and the next day departs on a journey “for stores.” That evening Marie, kneeling at prayer, sees that the cameo has disappeared from the Virgin’s breast. Next day François Xavier is found dead in the forest, an arrow in his heart. When the shaft is withdrawn, the arrow-head remains in his bosom. A century later, within the skeleton of a man exhumed near Starved Rock, Illinois, is found a rarely beautiful cameo. “The uncanny thing rattled within the white ribs.”--Elizabeth W. Champney, The Heartbreak Cameo.
Xavier de Belsunce (H. François), immortalized by his self-devotion in administering to the plague-stricken at Marseilles (1720-22).
⁂ Other similar examples are Charles Borro´meo, cardinal and archbishop of Milan (1538-1584). St. Roche, who died in 1327 from the plague caught by him in his indefatigable labors in ministering to the plague-stricken at Piacenza. Mompesson was equally devoted to the people of Eyam. Sir John Lawrence, lord mayor of London, is less known, but ought to be held in equal honor, for supporting 40,000 dismissed servants in the great plague.
Xenoc´rates (4 syl.), a Greek philosopher. The courtezan Laïs made a heavy bet that she would allure him from his philosophy; but after she had tried all her arts on him without success, she exclaimed, “I thought he had been a living man, and not a mere stone.”
Do you think I am Xenocrates, or like the Sultan with marble legs? There you leave me tête-à-tête with Mrs. Haller, as if my heart were a mere flint.--Benjamin Thompson, The Stranger, iv. 2 (1797).
Xerxes denounced.--See Plutarch, Life of Themistoclês, art. “Sea-Fights of Artemisium and Salamis.”