diff --git a/django/utils/html.py b/django/utils/html.py
index 311a4d5c35..79b0d6d5af 100644
--- a/django/utils/html.py
+++ b/django/utils/html.py
@@ -25,8 +25,6 @@ del x # Temporary variable
 
 def escape(html):
     "Returns the given HTML with ampersands, quotes and carets encoded"
-    if not isinstance(html, basestring):
-        html = force_unicode(html)
     return force_unicode(html).replace('&', '&amp;').replace('<', '&lt;').replace('>', '&gt;').replace('"', '&quot;').replace("'", '&#39;')
 escape = allow_lazy(escape, unicode)