The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses for the Armour of Achilles is a short comedic Caroline era stage play, a 'Dramatic Interlude' in three scenes written by James Shirley performed 1654-58[1] and first published in 1659.
No specific data about the stage history of either piece has survived, however; both may have been works that Shirley prepared for performance by the schoolboys he taught after the theatres closed with the start of the English Civil War in 1642.
While not one of Shirley's most notable stage works, the third and final scene of The Contention[3] contains a funeral dirge spoken by the seer Calchas for Ajax who has committed suicide while consumed with rage that Ulysses alone had been awarded the armour of Achilles.
The play is set in the Grecian camp outside the walls of Troy, during the Trojan War; it opens soon after the death of Achilles, with Lycippus and Dydimus (the pages of Ajax and Ulysses) disputing the relative worths of their masters.
The Greek generals and officers, led by Agamemnon and including Menelaus, Nestor, Thersander, and Diomedes, enter and seat themselves to hear the debate; Ajax and Ulysses follow.