diff --git a/classpath/java/util/regex/Pattern.java b/classpath/java/util/regex/Pattern.java
index 9c0bd680fd..b9c84eb6f3 100644
--- a/classpath/java/util/regex/Pattern.java
+++ b/classpath/java/util/regex/Pattern.java
@@ -35,20 +35,38 @@ public class Pattern {
   private final String pattern;
 
   protected Pattern(String pattern, int flags) {
-    this.pattern = pattern;
+    this.pattern = trivial(pattern);
     this.patternFlags = flags;
-
-    if (! trivial(pattern)) {
-      throw new UnsupportedOperationException
-        ("only trivial regular expressions are supported so far");
-    }
   }
 
-  private static boolean trivial(String pattern) {
+  private static String trivial(String pattern) {
+    StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();
     for (int i = 0; i < pattern.length(); ++i) {
       char c = pattern.charAt(i);
       switch (c) {
       case '\\':
+        if (++i == pattern.length()) {
+          break;
+        }
+        c = pattern.charAt(i);
+        if (c == '0') {
+          int len = digits(pattern, ++i, 3, 8);
+          if (len == 3 && pattern.charAt(i) > '3') {
+            --len;
+          }
+          c = (char)Integer.parseInt(pattern.substring(i, i + len), 8);
+          i += len - 1;
+        } else if (c == 'x' || c == 'u') {
+          int len = digits(pattern, ++i, 4, 16);
+          c = (char)Integer.parseInt(pattern.substring(i, i + len), 16);
+          i += len - 1;
+        } else {
+          c = unescape(pattern.charAt(i));
+        }
+        if (c != -1) {
+          break;
+        }
+        // fallthru
       case '.':
       case '*':
       case '+':
@@ -62,10 +80,50 @@ public class Pattern {
       case ')':
       case '^':
       case '$':
-        return false;
+        throw new UnsupportedOperationException
+          ("only trivial regular expressions are supported so far (" + pattern + ")");
+      }
+      buffer.append(c);
+    }
+    return buffer.toString();
+  }
+
+  private static int digits(String s, int offset, int maxLength, int base) {
+    for (int i = 0; ; ++i) {
+      if (i == maxLength || offset + i >= s.length()) {
+        return i;
+      }
+      int value = s.charAt(offset + i) - '0';
+      if (value < 0) {
+        return i;
+      }
+      if (base > 10 && value >= 10) {
+        value += 10 - (value >= 'a' - '0' ? 'a' - '0' : 'A' - '0');
+      }
+      if (value >= base) {
+        return i;
       }
     }
-    return true;
+  }
+
+  private static char unescape(char c) {
+    switch (c) {
+    case '\\':
+       return c;
+    case 'a':
+       return 0x0007;
+    case 'e':
+       return 0x001B;
+    case 'f':
+       return 0x000C;
+    case 'n':
+       return 0x000A;
+    case 'r':
+       return 0x000D;
+    case 't':
+       return 0x0009;
+    }
+    return (char)-1;
   }
 
   public static Pattern compile(String regex) {
diff --git a/test/Strings.java b/test/Strings.java
index 7ba502b9d5..30a85163c9 100644
--- a/test/Strings.java
+++ b/test/Strings.java
@@ -105,6 +105,15 @@ public class Strings {
            (prematureEOS ? "\u00ae\ufffd" : "\u00ae\uaeaf"));
   }
 
+  public static void testTrivialPattern() throws Exception {
+    expect("?7".matches("\\0777"));
+    expect("\007".matches("\\a"));
+    expect("\\".matches("\\\\"));
+    expect("J".matches("\\x4A"));
+    expect("a".matches("\\x61"));
+    expect("\0078".matches("\\078"));
+  }
+
   public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
     expect(new String(new byte[] { 99, 111, 109, 46, 101, 99, 111, 118, 97,
                                    116, 101, 46, 110, 97, 116, 46, 98, 117,
@@ -193,5 +202,7 @@ public class Strings {
                         32, 110, 117, 116, 115 },
             System.getProperty("line.separator").getBytes())));
     }
+
+    testTrivialPattern();
   }
 }