'Behave' occurs once in 2Henry VI in the reflexive form of 'behave yourself' and twice in Hamlet and Othello in the passive form 'to be behaved.' In these two plays the words occurs in the context of an extremely confrontational scene between a man and a woman . In the Hamlet passage, the word is used prospectively. Claudius will observe the behavior of Hamlet. What he sees is Hamlet's violence towards Ophelia
.
28 Sweet
Gertrude, leave us two,
29 For we have closely sent for Hamlet
hither,
30 That he, as 'twere by accident, may
here
31 Affront Ophelia. Her father and
myself,
32 We'll so bestow ourselves that,
seeing unseen,
33 We may of their encounter frankly
judge,
34 And gather by him, as he is
behav'd,
35 If't be th' affliction of his love
or no
36 That thus he suffers for. (Ham.3.1.28-36)
In Othello, Desdemona reflects on the scene in which Othello struck her in public and asks how his action was triggered by her behavior
Des.
Prithee to-night
105
Lay on my bed my wedding-sheets -- remember;
106
And call thy husband hither.
Emil.
106 Here's a change indeed! (Exit)
Des.
107 'Tis meet I should be us'd so, very meet.
108 How have I been behav'd,
that he might stick
109 The small'st opinion on my least
misuse?
(Oth.4.2.104-109)
This may seem a tenuous connection. On the other hand, 'behave' is ordinarily a word with an extremely wide range of application. There is nothing in its usage that would suggest that two occurrences of the same syntactic pattern should be part of a scene that involves extremely abusive behavior on the part of a man and extremely bewildered behavior on the part of a woman.
18 September 1999