Below is an excellent example of close reading.  Note especially the careful attention to particular words and their connotations in the passages quoted--e.g. "earthen" or "spills."
--rm
Close Reading of Glauce’s Spell in The Faerie Queene Book 3
At the end of Canto II in Book 3 of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene Britomart’s nurse, Glauce, attempts to work a spell to cure Britomart of her strange affliction.  The illness is actually love which according to Spenser is a force too strong to be destroyed by magic.  This sort of magic in particular Spenser seems to view as trivial superstition rather than a powerful force.  Analysis of this passage also reveals information about the poem’s view of women and their proper roles and actions.  
The poem contains many supernatural forces which do not fit within the realm of Anglican theology which are not necessarily indicated as sinful  Spenser generally avoids direct theological discourse but he does favor actions and ideas which fit philosophically with Renaissance ideas such as science and logic.  While it does seem that the non-Christian nature of this spell does make it immoral according to Spenser, it seems of greater importance that this kind of work is irrational and unnatural than that it is unchristian.  
Morality is also important, in this book particularly as it relates to women and the proper virtue of a woman.  If Britomart is the positive, albeit unconventional example of womanhood, Glauce serves as a contrast for her; although there is a close bond between them they are very different women.  Glauce is named in this passage as the “agèd nurse” (49.4) an image which makes her particularly crone-like; this associates her with typical images of witches.  Her age also shows her as being connected with earlier times, more pagan less rational times.  Britomart, on the other hand, is referred to in this passage with terms such as “the virgin” (50.6) and “the noble maid” (52.1).  This contrasts her with Glauce but also emphasizes her virginity, purity, and moral character.  This moral character contrasts slightly with that of Glauce who is essentially performing a pagan rite in this passage.  Such magic is contrary to the beliefs of the Anglican Church, the established state religion.  Britomart stands as the exemplary template for women while Glauce represents women who do not behave as they should.  
Spenser begins by listing the various herbal ingredients that she gathers: “Had gathered rue and savin and the flower/of camphora, and calamint and dill,/All which she in a earthen pot did pour” (49.5-6).  The action involved in working the spell, gathering ingredients and putting them in a pot, also mirrors another aspect of woman’s domain—cooking.  The statement that the pot was “earthen” makes it appear rustic and in keeping with Glauce’s portrayal as being more primitive.  As the pot is of the earth it also has a greater feminine resonance, connecting it with the common mythological trope of the earth being a mother.  The juxtaposition of something which belongs in female practice, cooking, with what Glauce is actually doing, working magic, shows that her enterprise is unnatural.  This is not to say that the Spenser only allows for women in traditional archetypal roles, Britomart’s knighthood does not fit with those, but the direct parallel shown here makes Glauce’s actions seem deviant.  This idea is further emphasized by her position as Britomart’s nurse, someone who is supposed to provide care.  She has failed to protect Britomart and keep her from affliction and now she is working unnatural spells in a way that mimics the supply of nourishment, another responsibility for a nurse, but fails to do so.  
Next Spenser states “And many drops of milk and blood through it did spill” (43.9).  The addition of milk brings to mind the woman’s role as Britomart’s nurse; it juxtaposes the maternal care the woman is supposed to provide with the occult work she is performing.  Blood is a similarly potent symbol relating to familial bonds and also to women and reproduction.  Its inclusion, along with that of milk, serves to show that this spell is being attempted through the use of female power.  The verb “spill” makes the action seem almost careless—spilling is usually the result of an accident of some kind.  This is clearly not an accident, but it implies a lack of rational thought.  The inclusion of the words “blood” and “spill” in the same line also invoke an idea of violence.  Such violence is normally the domain of men, but this poem is atypical in that Britomart herself takes up arms as a knight.  This female spilling of blood here mirrors the blood that Britomart spills on her quest.  
The spell is contingent upon many things happening three times; the nurse “Then taking thrice three hairs from off her head” (50.1), braids the hairs three times (50.2).   This “treefold lace” (50.2) is bound around the top of the pot that holds the potion Glauce brews.  This binding indicates that this three part creation is what symbolically holds the spell together.  The alliteration of the “th” sound in the first line of the stanza with “Then,” “thrice,” and “three” calls attention to the words related to three; it is also perhaps not coincidental that the sound is repeated three times.  
The language of the poem also contains some threefold repetition.  The word “come” appears three times in one line with “Come, daughter, come, come” (50.7).  Glauce then tells Britomart “spit upon my face,/ spit thrice upon me, thrice upon me spit” (50.6-8); not only is she commanded to repeat the action three times, the command is given three times with only slight variations in phrasing.  There are similarly three phrases describing the nurse turning Britomart around, using slightly different language each time “her round about she from her turned,/She turned her contrary to the sun,/Thrice she her turned contrary and returned” (51.1-3).  Spenser draws from a long tradition that connects the number three with magic; of it the nurse states “The uneven number for this business is most fit” (50.9).  The emphasis on the number three being “uneven” shows its irregularity, its disconnection with the rational world.  Three is also a number with strong connotations in Christian theology.  Using this in a way that is obviously not a Christian practice, Spenser again makes the action seem more deviant.  
As she continues the spell the poem states “And after having whisperèd a space/Certain sad words with hollow voice and bass” (50.4-5).  The adjective “sad” gives a negative impression to the incantation.  Although Britomart is suffering, she is suffering from love which is a positive thing.  That the words needed to undo it should be “sad” contrasts them with the positive aspects of love.  The description of the nurse’s voice as being “hollow” and “bass” gives a vivid image of the way chants are commonly performed, in a deep, nasal voice, but the words convey other information as well.  The word hollow is the first indication that the spell will not be successful—it is empty, lacking the power necessary for the task.  “Bass” means a deep tone, but it is also a homonym for the word “base” meaning corrupt or immoral which expresses an attitude that this sort of magic is immoral.  
The nurse spins Britomart “contrary to the sun” (51.2), this places her moving against nature, showing again that this practice is unnatural.  Spenser emphasizes this by stating a few lines later “All contrary, for she the right did shun” (51.4).  This phrase has double meanings in the passage:  by shunning the right the nurse is moving left, but “right” is not used here in a purely directional sense; it also means “correct.”  Spenser shows that there is something wrong with the type of magic the nurse attempts.  The poem continues “And ever what she did was straight undone” (51.5).  Again the phrase has multiple meanings; “straight undone” can indicate that she immediately undoes everything she accomplishes, but it can also mean that it was the opposite of straight or correct—it was deviant.  The next line “So thought she to undo her daughter’s love” (51.6) repeats the verb “undo” drawing greater attention to it.  It is significant that Glauce is not so much doing something as she is undoing something; she is working in an unproductive way.  She is also trying to destroy love, something that is generally held to be a virtue, rather than a vice.   
The spell is unsuccessful, however, which is perhaps the strongest piece of evidence that Spenser takes a dim view of this kind of magic.  The poem states “But love that is in gentle breast begun/No idle charms so lightly may remove” (51.7-8).  Referring to the spell as an “idle charm” makes it seem foolish and trivial.  Furthermore referring to Britomart’s love as residing within her “gentle breast” also hearkens to Glauce’s role as her nurse.  It sets a greater opposition between the two women; the nurse should be providing succor and instead is working to destroy love while Britomart’s breast is nurturing it.  
Spenser’s purpose here is to convey the strength of Britomart’s love.  Herblore is depicted at other points during the poem for more practical purposes such as the healing of wounds, an in those passages it is portrayed in a much more favorable light.  The immorality of the spell then is not so much that it is a spell, but the purpose for which it is being performed.  It is also problematic because it is contrary to the proper feminine roles, particularly that of a nurse.  
Spenser sets up this moment so that the spell work imitates proper female action, but twists it and works in the opposite way.  Glauce is not a villainous character, she seems at worst primitive and ignorant, but in this scene her actions are wrong because they are working towards a foolish purpose and in an idle manner.  Her fault is being neglectful of her duties at first and then making a mockery of them in an attempt to set things right.  The repetition of the number three also makes a mockery of the Holy Trinity and heightens the deviance of her act.  The failure of the spell to help in anyway is the harshest criticism of it; it shows that in addition to its other faults the spell served no purpose.