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I am particularly looking for the grammatical explanation of the "hath ending" in the last line of the following stanza, why it's not "the world is ending"? Or if I say it means that "world has its ending with your life", would it be correct?

"Thrice fairer than myself," thus she began,
"The field's chief flower, sweet above compare,
Stain to all nymphs, more lovely than a man,
More white and red than doves or roses are.
Nature that made thee with herself at strife.
Saith that the world hath ending with thy life.

Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare

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    There seems to be disagreement over punctuation in different sources: this text has no full stop after "strife", and it makes little sense with the fullstop.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Dec 9, 2022 at 19:31
  • Yes, it means 'the world has its ending'.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Dec 9, 2022 at 19:33
  • 2
    [Mother Nature says] ... after making you, my work is done.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 9, 2022 at 19:47
  • Nature says that when Adonis dies, the world will end.
    – Tinfoil Hat
    Commented Dec 9, 2022 at 23:14
  • Please show what research you've done and what you already know about the grammar that is involved in this sentence. Do you know what gerunds and participles are? Can you recognize "ending" as one of those forms when preceded by "hath" or "is"?
    – MarcInManhattan
    Commented Dec 10, 2022 at 5:27

1 Answer 1

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This is not a matter of opinion. It is matter of grammar.

The old English verb to have was conjugated in the singular as:
I have
Thou hast
He/she hath

hath is thus merely an archaic form of contemporary "has". It still occurs in the old mnemonic
"Thirty days hath September, April, June and November ..."

See for example

WikiDiff

With this in mind, we may analyse to produce a modern version:

Nature that made thee with herself at strife. Saith (3rd person singular old form of says) that the world hath (3rd person singular old form of has) ending with thy (2nd person singular old form of your) life.

Hence the modern equivalent is:
Nature that made you with herself at strife.
Says that the world has ending with your life.

Ignoring the possible error of the stop after strife, this implies that when the object of the speech dies, the world will end (figuratively rather than in reality; from the viewpoint of the writer).

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  • I have edited so as to deal with any confusion or lack of clarity that prompted someone to downvote (without comment or explanation) a simple piece of grammar.
    – Anton
    Commented Dec 10, 2022 at 12:31
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    I appreciate your effort in explaining the archaic forms of to have, but my concern is more toward "ending", is it a gerund or what? It seems odd to me reading it with hath (or has). Moreover, your paraphrasing "the world is ended" doesn't seem correct, as per what I've read in annotations and explanations, it means "the world will end".
    – Tayyab
    Commented Dec 11, 2022 at 16:32
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    Thanks for clarification of your difficulty. Ending is a gerundial noun, rather like “beginning” (cf the bible’s “in the beginning …”). If the world has an ending because of the death of the object of the lines, they may indeed be construed to mean that the world will end (figuratively) when the death comes. I have edited accordingly.
    – Anton
    Commented Dec 12, 2022 at 8:33

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