It was during these meetings that Field caught from Dr. Reilly’s frequent unctuous quotations his first real taste for Horace.  To two works the doctor was impartially devoted, the “Noetes Ambrosianae” and “The Reliques of Father Prout.”

He never wearied of communion with the classical father or of literary companionship with Christopher North, Timothy Tickler, and the Ettrick Shepherd.  We never sat down to pie or oysters that his imagination did not transform that Chicago oyster house into Ambrose’s Tavern, the scene of the feasts and festivities of table and conversation of the immortal trio.  But though the doctor enjoyed association with Kit North and the voluble Shepherd, it was for the garrulous Father Prout, steeped in the gossip and learning of the ancients, that he reserved his warmest love and veneration.  So saturated and infatuated was the doctor with this fascinating creation of Francis Mahony’s, that he inoculated Field with his devotion, and before we knew it the author of the Denver Tribune Primer stories was suffering from a literary disease, to the intoxicating pleasure of which he yielded himself without reservation.

To those who wish to understand the effect of this inspiration upon the life and writings of Eugene Field, but who have not enjoyed familiar acquaintance with the celebrated Prout papers, some description of this work of Francis Mahony may not be amiss.  He was a Roman Catholic priest, educated at a Jesuit college at Amiens, who had lived and held positions in France, Switzerland, and Ireland.  It was while officiating at the chapel of the Bavarian Legation in London that he began contributing the Prout papers to Fraser’s Magazine.  These consisted of fanciful narratives, each serving as a vehicle for the display of his wonderful polyglot learning, and containing translations of well-known English songs into Latin, Greek, French, and Italian verse, which later he seriously represented as the true originals from which the English authors had boldly plagiarized.  He also introduced into his stories the songs of France and Italy and felicitous translations, none of which were better than those from Horace.  His command of the various languages into which he rendered English verse was extraordinary, and his translations were so free and spirited in thought and diction as to excite the admiration of the best scholars.  When it is said that his translations of French and Latin odes preserved their poetical expression and sentiments with the freedom of original composition almost unequalled in English translations, the exceptional character of Father Prout’s work will be appreciated.  Accompanying these English versions there was a running commentary of semi-grave, but always humorous, criticism.  Of Francis Mahony’s acknowledged poems, the “Bells of Shandon” is the best known.  In the Prout papers, while his genius finds its chief expression in fantastic invention and sarcastic and cynical wit, it is everywhere sweetened by gentle sentiments and an unfailing fund of human nature and kindly humor.