PORTO NOVO  , a town of British India, on the Coromandel coast in the South Arcot district of Madras . Pop . (19o1), 13,712 . The English began trading here in 1683, when they found both the Danes and the Portuguese already established . The place is chiefly famous for the battle in July 1781, in which Sir Eyre Coote with 8000 men defeated Hyder Ali with 6o,000 and saved the Madras presidency . In 183o an attempt, finally unsuccessful mainly owing to the lack of fuel, was made to smelt iron from the or-as found in the vicinity . PORTO-RICHE, GEORGES DE (1849- ), French dramatist, was born at Bordeaux . When he was twenty his pieces in verse began to be produced at the Parisian theatres; he also wrote some books of verse which met with a favourable reception, but these early works were not reprinted . In 1898 he published Theatre d'amour, which contained four of his best pieces, La Chance de Francoise, L'Infidele, Amoureuse, Le Passe . The title given to this collection indicates the difference between the plays of Porto-Riche and the political or sociological pieces of many of his contemporaries . In Germaine, the passionate and exacting heroine of Amoureuse, Mme Rejane found one of her best parts . In Les Malefilatres (Odeon, 1904), also a drama of passion, the characters are drawn from the working classes .