diff --git a/lib/erb.rb b/lib/erb.rb
index bb47943a868a0c..09623f07c21b4d 100644
--- a/lib/erb.rb
+++ b/lib/erb.rb
@@ -896,6 +896,16 @@ class ERB
   # A utility module for conversion routines, often handy in HTML generation.
   module Util
     public
+
+    # The set of special characters and their escaped values
+    TABLE_FOR_ESCAPE_HTML__ = {
+      "'" => ''',
+      '&' => '&',
+      '"' => '"',
+      '<' => '&lt;',
+      '>' => '&gt;',
+    }
+
     #
     # A utility method for escaping HTML tag characters in _s_.
     #
@@ -909,7 +919,7 @@ module Util
     #   is a &gt; 0 &amp; a &lt; 10?
     #
     def html_escape(s)
-      s.to_s.gsub(/&/, "&amp;").gsub(/\"/, "&quot;").gsub(/>/, "&gt;").gsub(/</, "&lt;")
+      s.to_s.gsub(/['&\"<>]/, TABLE_FOR_ESCAPE_HTML__)
     end
     alias h html_escape
     module_function :h