John Honyman (1613 – April 1636), also Honeyman, Honiman, Honnyman, or other variants, was an English actor of the

Caroline era The Caroline era is the period in English and Scottish history named for the 24-year reign of Charles I (1625–1649). The term is derived from ''Carolus'', the Latin for Charles. The Caroline era followed the Jacobean era, the reign of Charles's ...

. He was a member of the King's Men, the most prominent

playing company Play is a range of intrinsically motivated activities done for recreational pleasure and enjoyment. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other higher-functio ...

of its era, best known as the company of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

and

Richard Burbage Richard Burbage (c. 1567 – 13 March 1619) was an English stage actor, widely considered to have been one of the most famous actors of the Globe Theatre and of his time. In addition to being a stage actor, he was also a theatre owner, entr ...

. 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 of John Shank, he started his career as a

boy player Boy player refers to children who performed in Medieval and English Renaissance playing companies. Some boy players worked for the adult companies and performed the female roles as women did not perform on the English stage in this period. Others ...

filling female roles; in his teens he was playing leading female parts, Domitilla in '' The Roman Actor'' (

1626 Events January–March * January 7 – Polish-Swedish War: Battle of Wallhof in Latvia – Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, defeats a Polish army. * January 9 – Peter Minuit sails from Texel Island for America's Ne ...

) and Sophia in '' The Picture'' (

1629 Events January–March * January 7– Henry Frederick, Hereditary Prince of the Palatinate, the 15-year-old son of the German Palatinate elector, Frederick V, drowns in an accident while sailing to Amsterdam. * January 19&nd ...

), both plays by

Philip Massinger Philip Massinger (1583 – 17 March 1640) was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including '' A New Way to Pay Old Debts'', ''The City Madam'', and ''The Roman Actor'', are noted for their satire and realism, and their polit ...

, and Clarinda in

Lodowick Carlell Lodowick Carlell (1602–1675), also Carliell or Carlile, was a seventeenth-century English playwright, was active mainly during the Caroline era and the Commonwealth period. Courtier Carlell's ancestry was Scottish. He was the son of Herbe ...

's '' The 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 and Richard 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 in John Clavell's ''

The Soddered Citizen ''The Soddered Citizen'' is a Caroline era stage play, a city comedy now attributed to John Clavell. The play was lost for three centuries; the sole surviving manuscript was rediscovered and published in the twentieth century. History ''The ...

'' (

1630 Events January–March * January 2 – A shoemaker in Turin is found to have the first case of bubonic plague there as the plague of 1630 begins spreading through Italy. * January 5 – A team of Portuguese military advisers ...

), and the First Merchant in Massinger's '' Believe as You List'' (

1631 Events January–March * January 23 – Thirty Years' War: Sweden and France sign the Treaty of Bärwalde, a military alliance in which France provides funds for the Swedish army invading northern Germany. * February 5 &ndash ...

). In the

1632 Events January–March * January – The Holland's Leaguer (brothel), Holland's Leguer, a brothel in London, is closed after having been besieged for a month. * February 22 – Galileo Galilei, Galileo's ''Dialogue Conce ...

King's Men's revival of John Fletcher's '' The Wild Goose Chase'', he filled the minor part of "Young Man disguised as a Factor." Honyman was made a

Groom of the Chamber Groom of the Chamber was a position in the Household of the monarch in early modern England. Other ''Ancien Régime'' royal establishments in Europe had comparable officers, often with similar titles. In France, the Duchy of Burgundy, and in Eng ...

on 15 April 1633, along with John 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 Robert Benfield (died July 1649) was a seventeenth-century actor, noted for his longtime membership in the King's Men in the years and decades after William Shakespeare's retirement and death. Nothing is known of Benfield's early life. He was mo ...

was one of the witnesses), leaves bequests to his mother, father, and brother, his fellow actors, and the poor of his parish, St. Giles without

Cripplegate Cripplegate was a gate in the London Wall which once enclosed the City of London. The gate gave its name to the Cripplegate ward of the City which straddles the line of the former wall and gate, a line which continues to divide the ward into ...

. Thomas Jordan published an elegy on Honyman in his ''Love's Dialact'' (

1646 It is one of eight years (CE) to contain each Roman numeral once (1000(M)+500(D)+100(C)+(-10(X)+50(L))+5(V)+1(I) = 1646). Events January–March * January 5 – The English House of Commons approves a bill to provide for Ireland ...

). Honyman also appears to have been among the minority of actors who wrote one or more plays. Sir Aston 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.W. J. Lawrence, "John Honeyman, the Caroline Actor-Dramatist," ''Review of English Studies'' Vol. 3 No. 10 (April 1927), pp. 220–2.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Honyman, John King's Men (playing company) 17th-century English male actors English male stage actors 1613 births 1636 deaths Boy players