MALCOLM      With this, there grows

In my most ill-composed affection, such

A staunchless avarice, that were I king

I should cut off the nobles for their lands,

Desire his jewels and this other’s house,

And my more-having would be as a sauce

To make me hunger more, that I should forge

Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,

Destroying them for wealth.            (4.3.77-85)

Malcolm returns to his apparent confession: it’s not just that he’s consumed with lust, he’s greedy too; he’s after everyone else’s money, and he’ll seize it. His affection, his character, his disposition is ill-composed, intemperate again, out of balance, given to excess, and he has a staunchless avarice, unstoppable, incontinent greed, like an overflowing spring, or a bleeding wound. He’d do anything for money: were I king, he says, I should cut off the nobles for their lands, execute the thanes (presumably on trumped up charges of treason) in order to seize their estates, all their property, desire his jewels and this other’s house. I’d take it all, and no one could stop me. But it still wouldn’t be enough, because my more-having would be as a sauce to make me hunger more, my appetite for land and gold a craving that could never be satisfied, sharpening my desire. And so I’d forge quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, destroying them for wealth. Even my most faithful subjects would have no defence: I’d pick baseless fights, pursue unjust disputes, forge quarrels(and here forge is both make and fabricate, falsify). I would destroy them for wealth, my peers, my friends, my countrymen. Malcolm is describing himself as a creature consumed by monstrous appetites, a bottomless pit of lust and avarice, uncontrollable, perhaps unredeemable. How will Macduff respond to this?