If two independent individuals meet and are
drawn together by the law of elective affinities, they may marry and
live happily forever after; if another marriage has already taken
place, as in Goethe's story, the result may be tragedy. In _Cristina_,
the elective affinities assert their force between a queen and a
private individual; the result is, at least temporarily, unfortunate
for the simple reason that the lady, although drawn toward the man
by the workings of this mysterious force, is controlled even more
firmly by the bondage of social convention; she behaves in a
contrary manner to that shown by the stooping lady in Maurice
Hewlett's story. This force needs only one moment, one glance, to
assert its power:
She should never have looked at me
If she meant I should not love her!
Love in Browning is often love at first sight; no prolonged
acquaintance is necessary; not even a spoken word, or any physical
contact.
Doubt you whether
This she felt as, _looking at me_,
Mine and her souls rushed together?
In Tennyson's _Locksley Hall_ (published the same year), contact was
important:
And our spirits rushed together at the touching of the lips.
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