diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 152e4b6..19f2cbd 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 *SVN*
 
-* Prevent linefeed normalisation in String.prototype.escapeHTML and unescapeHTML on IE for consistency with other browsers.  [Thomas Fuchs]
+* Prevent linefeed normalisation in String.prototype.escapeHTML and unescapeHTML on IE for consistency with other browsers. Speed optimizations for Safari and IE.  [Thomas Fuchs]
 
 * Make Hash.toQueryString serialize undefined values. Ensure consistency with String.prototype.toQueryParams.  Closes #7806.  [Mislav Marohnić]
   Examples:
diff --git a/src/prototype.js b/src/prototype.js
index daa0f55..242cf30 100644
--- a/src/prototype.js
+++ b/src/prototype.js
@@ -18,8 +18,6 @@ var Prototype = {
   },
   
   ScriptFragment: '(?:<script.*?>)((\n|\r|.)*?)(?:<\/script>)',
-  LinefeedFragment: '-PrOtOtYpE LiNeFeEd-',
-  
   emptyFunction: function() {},
   K: function(x) { return x }
 }
diff --git a/src/string.js b/src/string.js
index 7af3e95..96fc361 100644
--- a/src/string.js
+++ b/src/string.js
@@ -193,18 +193,12 @@ Object.extend(String.prototype, {
   }
 });
 
-if (Prototype.Browser.IE) Object.extend(String.prototype, {
+if (Prototype.Browser.WebKit || Prototype.Browser.IE) Object.extend(String.prototype, {
   escapeHTML: function() {
-    var self = arguments.callee;
-    self.text.data = this.gsub(/\n/, Prototype.LinefeedFragment);
-    return self.div.innerHTML.gsub(Prototype.LinefeedFragment, '\n');
+    return this.replace(/&/g,'&amp;').replace(/</g,'&lt;').replace(/>/g,'&gt;');
   },
   unescapeHTML: function() {
-    var div = document.createElement('div');
-    div.innerHTML = this.stripTags().gsub(/\n/, Prototype.LinefeedFragment);
-    return (div.childNodes[0] ? (div.childNodes.length > 1 ?
-      $A(div.childNodes).inject('', function(memo, node) { return memo+node.nodeValue }) :
-      div.childNodes[0].nodeValue) : '').gsub(Prototype.LinefeedFragment, '\n');
+    return this.replace(/&amp;/g,'&').replace(/&lt;/g,'<').replace(/&gt;/g,'>');
   }
 });
 
diff --git a/test/unit/string.html b/test/unit/string.html
index ac243c2..6e09746 100644
--- a/test/unit/string.html
+++ b/test/unit/string.html
@@ -266,6 +266,10 @@
       assertEqual(largeTextEscaped, largeTextUnescaped.escapeHTML());
       
       assertEqual('1\n2', '1\n2'.escapeHTML());
+      
+      benchmark(function(){
+        largeTextUnescaped.escapeHTML();
+      },1000);
     }},
     
     testUnescapeHTML: function() {with(this) {
@@ -279,6 +283,11 @@
       assertEqual(largeTextUnescaped, largeTextEscaped.unescapeHTML());
       
       assertEqual('1\n2', '1\n2'.unescapeHTML());
+      
+      benchmark(function(){
+        largeTextEscaped.unescapeHTML();
+      },1000);
+      
     }},
     
     testTemplateEvaluation: function() {with(this) {