diff --git a/HTMLparser.c b/HTMLparser.c
index 2aeb7794..4d2a343e 100644
--- a/HTMLparser.c
+++ b/HTMLparser.c
@@ -6995,9 +6995,6 @@ htmlReadMemory(const char *buffer, int size, const char *URL, const char *encodi
     ctxt = htmlCreateMemoryParserCtxt(buffer, size);
     if (ctxt == NULL)
         return (NULL);
-    htmlDefaultSAXHandlerInit();
-    if (ctxt->sax != NULL)
-        memcpy(ctxt->sax, &htmlDefaultSAXHandler, sizeof(xmlSAXHandlerV1));
     return (htmlDoRead(ctxt, URL, encoding, options, 0));
 }