In early 1914, Romania experienced the uncomfortable situation of maintaining, at great diplomatic costs, the strategy of balance in its foreign policy. The already tensioned situation in the Kingdom of Romania was further more stirred by a tendentious play written by the young poet Octavian Goga, a cultural figure who enjoyed a high degree of popularity in Transylvania. “Domnul notar” play, attracted, in this context, a special attention, mostly from outside cultural circles. Worried by the potential agitations that this play could stir among the Romanian audience, the Austrian diplomats, recognizing the possibility of Romania quitting its membership in the Triple Alliance, intervened in order to prevent the reception of the play. They tried to discourage those inflamed by its contents. In their view, the play elevated the issue of the Transylvanian Romanians to the position of a national priority. The Austro-Hungarian ambassador in Bucharest pressed the Romanian government, motivated by the representation of Goga’s play at the National Theater. On the opposite, the Cultural League, benefitting of a long experience in such moves, succeeded to set in motion an entire promotion machine. The current work aims to analyze the reactions of the Viennese diplomacy in front of this, apparently minor, literary casus belli, which succeeded to strain the relations between Romania and Austria-Hungary on the eve of the World War One.