The Oath of the Girl Who Finds Herself Pregnant, William Hogarth, 1735

Copy of a woman swearing a child to a grave citizen, after hogarth; a pregnant young woman standing to right, swearing on a book before a magistrate who sits at a bench to left with a book labelled 'law of bastadry [sic]' in front of him, that the child is by an old man wearing a dark wig with a ruff hanging at his waist, while he raises his hands and eyes to heaven, protesting innocence, his wife, wearing a coif and bonnet shakes her fist, upbraiding him, and the true father, a young man, crouches behind the woman, whispering counsel; beside the magistrate to left, a little girl sits teaching a dog to walk on its hind legs; after a print by joseph sympson after hogarth's painting; unfinished state before engraver's name. 1735 etching and engraving. Date: 1735. Dimensions: Height: 167 mm (trimmed); Width: 206 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: Sir Thomas De Veil. Collection: British Museum. Le Serment de la Fille qui se trouve enceinte (BM 1858,0417.528)