the translator of Sophocles and Lucian, was born in London in 1721. He was educated at Westminster School, and afterwards at Cambridge, where he became a fellow of Trinity College, and in 1750 professor of Greek. After taking orders he obtained various minor church appointments, and was at length made chaplain in ordinary to George III. In the intervals of official duty he found time to turn his classical knowledge to account by translating the Epistles of Phalaris, and the whole works of Sophocles and Lucian. His translation of Lucian (in which, however, some of the dialogues are omitted) is the best English version of that classic that has hitherto appeared; that of Sophocles is far from being equally happy. Franklin also wrote a Dissertation on Ancient Tragedy, and an Enquiry into the Astronomy and Anatomy of the Ancients, besides a variety of minor works, prose and poetical, possessing small literary interest or value. He died in 1784.