diff --git a/lib/utils.js b/lib/utils.js
index 31abf638..9e2c1d0b 100644
--- a/lib/utils.js
+++ b/lib/utils.js
@@ -53,6 +53,10 @@ var _ENCODE_HTML_RULES = {
     }
   , _MATCH_HTML = /[&<>\'"]/g;
 
+function encode_char(c) {
+  return _ENCODE_HTML_RULES[c] || c;
+};
+
 /**
  * Stringified version of constants used by {@link module:utils.escapeXML}.
  *
@@ -70,7 +74,10 @@ var escapeFuncStr =
 + '    , \'"\': "&#34;"\n'
 + '    , "\'": "&#39;"\n'
 + '    }\n'
-+ '  , _MATCH_HTML = /[&<>\'"]/g;\n';
++ '  , _MATCH_HTML = /[&<>\'"]/g;\n'
++ 'function encode_char(c) {\n'
++ '  return _ENCODE_HTML_RULES[c] || c;\n'
++ '};\n';
 
 /**
  * Escape characters reserved in XML.
@@ -83,13 +90,12 @@ var escapeFuncStr =
  * @static
  * @private
  */
+
 exports.escapeXML = function (markup) {
   return markup == undefined
     ? ''
     : String(markup)
-        .replace(_MATCH_HTML, function(m) {
-          return _ENCODE_HTML_RULES[m] || m;
-        });
+        .replace(_MATCH_HTML, encode_char);
 };
 exports.escapeXML.toString = function () {
   return Function.prototype.toString.call(this) + ';\n' + escapeFuncStr