John Honyman (1613 – April 1636), alsoHoneyman,Honiman,Honnyman, or other variants, was an English actor of theCaroline era. He was a member of theKing's Men, the most prominentplaying company of its era, best known as the company ofWilliam Shakespeare andRichard Burbage.[1]
Honyman belonged to the generation that followed Shakespeare and Burbage. He was christened on 7 February 1613, in the parish of St. Botolph's,Bishopsgate. An apprentice ofJohn Shank, he started his career as aboy player filling female roles; in his teens he was playing leading female parts, Domitilla inThe Roman Actor (1626) and Sophia inThe Picture (1629), both plays byPhilip Massinger, and Clarinda inLodowick Carlell'sThe Deserving Favourite (also 1629).
Some boy actors of Honyman's era made successful transitions from filling lead female roles as boys to lead male roles as young men;Stephen Hammerton andRichard Sharpe are two examples of this successful transition. John Honyman illustrates the opposite phenomenon, in that he graduated to only rather minor roles as a young adult. He played the servingman Sly inJohn Clavell'sThe Soddered Citizen (1630), and the First Merchant in Massinger'sBelieve as You List (1631). In the1632 King's Men's revival ofJohn Fletcher'sThe Wild Goose Chase, he filled the minor part of "Young Man disguised as a Factor."
Honyman was made aGroom of the Chamber on 15 April 1633, along withJohn Thompson. His potential development in his craft was cut short by his early death. He was buried on 13 April 1636. His last will and testament, drawn up six days earlier on 7 April (Robert Benfield was one of the witnesses), leaves bequests to his mother, father, and brother, his fellow actors, and the poor of his parish, St. Giles withoutCripplegate.[2] Thomas Jordan published an elegy on Honyman in hisLove's Dialact (1646).
Honyman also appears to have been among the minority of actors who wrote one or more plays. SirAston Cockayne left a 10-line poem "To Mr. John Hunnieman" that extols his "Successful pen and fortunate fantasy" and even compares Honyman to Shakespeare. Yet nothing is known of Honyman's dramas, not even their titles.[3]