Shirley, James -- Contention of Ajax and Ulysses for Achilles’s Armour, sc. 3, st. 1 (1659)

Dave — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 16:49:52 +0000

The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Scepter and crown
Must tumble down,
And, in the dust, be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.

James Shirley (1596–1666) English poet, playwright
Contention of Ajax and Ulysses for Achilles’s Armour, sc. 3, st. 1 (1659)
(Source)

Sung by Calchas over the body of Ajax.

The poem was eventually set to music by Edward Coleman. It was said to be a favorite of England's King Charles II, perhaps because it was said by some to have terrified Oliver Cromwell.

Titled as "Death's Final Conquest" in Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Book 3, No. 2 (1885). There the first line is given as "birth and state."

Shirley, James -- Poem (1639), “Fatum Supremum,” Facetiae: Wits Recreations, Epigram 170 (1640)

Dave — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 18:15:57 +0000

All buildings are but monuments of death,
All clothes but winding-sheets for our last knell,
All dainty fattings for the worms beneath,
All curious musique, but our passing bell;
Thus death is nobly waited on, for why?
All that we have is but death’s livery.

James Shirley (1596–1666) English poet, playwright
Poem (1639), “Fatum Supremum,” Facetiae: Wits Recreations, Epigram 170 (1640)
(Source)

The piece is also known as "The Passing Bell." The connection of this epigram to Shirley seems faint; he is labeled (probably) as a co-author of another part of this book (with John Mennes the clear lead author of the collection). However, he was labeled as the author in the influential 19th Century Hoyt, Cyclopædia of Practical Quotations, English and Latin (1882), and the attribution was picked up and carried on from there in other books of quotations. Hoyt, in turn, may have cross-attributed a reference to Shirley in Dodd, The Epigrammatists (1870).

WIST Quotations

Shirley, James -- Contention of Ajax and Ulysses for Achilles’s Armour, sc. 3, st. 1 (1659)

Shirley, James -- Poem (1639), “Fatum Supremum,” Facetiae: Wits Recreations, Epigram 170 (1640)