Dantes from his rocky perch saw the shattered vessel, and among the fragments the floating forms of the hapless sailors.

O tearful Guadiana, and ye O hapless daughters of Ruidera who show in your waves the tears that flowed from your beauteous eyes!"

But of all I saw and observed down there, what gave me most pain was, that while Montesinos was speaking to me, one of the two companions of the hapless Dulcinea approached me on one without my having seen her coming, and with tears in her eyes said to me, in a low, agitated voice, 'My lady Dulcinea del Toboso kisses your worship's hands, and entreats you to do her the favour of letting her know how you are; and, being in great need, she also entreats your worship as earnestly as she can to be so good as to lend her half a dozen reals, or as much as you may have about you, on this new dimity petticoat that I have here; and she promises to repay them very speedily.'

I told her that I believed she had given me a faithful account of herself, and that we had both been hapless instruments in designing hands.

A vast pulpy mass, furlongs in length and breadth, of a glancing cream-colour, lay floating on the water, innumerable long arms radiating from its centre, and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas, as if blindly to clutch at any hapless object within reach.

No wonder, taking the whole fleet of whalemen in a body, that out of fifty fair chances for a dart, not five are successful; no wonder that so many hapless harpooneers are madly cursed and disrated; no wonder that some of them actually burst their blood-vessels in the boat; no wonder that some sperm whalemen are absent four years with four barrels; no wonder that to many ship owners, whaling is but a losing concern; for it is the harpooneer that makes the voyage, and if you take the breath out of his body how can you expect to find it there when most wanted!

But while hapless Dough-Boy was by nature dull and torpid in his intellects, Pip, though over tender-hearted, was at bottom very bright, with that pleasant, genial, jolly brightness peculiar to his tribe; a tribe, which ever enjoy all holidays and festivities with finer, freer relish than any other race.

The hapless Erskine, who was very nearsighted, issued a set of foolish orders then promptly got lost in the fog with the cavalry.

Unfortunately, the heir to this hapless kingdom is Prince Adam.

He married the actress Jean Compton Mackenzie (a daughter of the actor Frank Compton) in 1936 and they had a son together, the stage actor Alan Howard. Arthur appeared in several television programmes such as "Whack-O", a school comedy in which he played the hapless assistant headmaster Pettigrew to Jimmy Edwards' headmaster, and in cameo film appearances such as "American Friends".

In fact, the citizens of Central City see him crash, burn and explode so often that they begin to suspect the hapless detective possesses super powers that protect him from serious injury.

Publicly, she retains the corporate image of a sweet, bustling old woman who often slips into the stereotype of a hapless grandmother (she wears antiquated clothes that greatly accentuate her bust and general figure, while using rustic similes and metaphors such as "squeaking like an old screen door").

His best-remembered role may be that of hapless flower shop owner Gravis Mushnik in the 1960 low-budget Roger Corman dark comedy, "The Little Shop of Horrors".

Pickup portrayed Prince Yakimov, a hapless, down-at-heel Russo-British aristocrat, opposite Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh in the BBC serial "Fortunes of War" (1987) based on a novel cycle by Olivia Manning.

In this middle period, Martin created some of his most absurdist work—for example, "National Gorilla Suit Day"—an extended narrative in which a hapless character is violently assaulted by a series of attackers in various disguises, including men dressed as gorillas and gorillas dressed as men.

But as days pass by, the villagers’ plights become more hapless as many more suicides follow, including that of Merlin and Joseph.

In recent years, Harrow enhanced criminals to superhuman status for a fee, the hapless Megawatt his first known subject. When Hammerhead rose to prominence, Harrow observed his ex-patient's battles with Spider-Man, whom he perceived as a challenge.

The artist's description was, "Alien woman seduces hapless human male involving a very unusual flower."

Following Yarno's successful conversion, heartily celebrated by his fellow linemen, division champion Detroit recovered the subsequent onside kick and ran out the clock to win the game by three points, 23–20, and hapless Tampa Bay finished the year at 2–14.