Characters in inline JS being converted to URL encoded

Vaadin 7 question: I have an inline javascript being read in and appended via a BoostrapListener which is producing syntax errors in the browser console. Examination of the page source reveals that characters in the script such as ‘>’, ‘<’ and ‘&’ are being converted at some point to URL encoded characters. Can anyone explain where this conversion occurs, how to turn off or if I need to escape the characters in the script file?