--- a/genshi/_speedups.c
+++ b/genshi/_speedups.c
@@ -61,6 +61,18 @@
         Py_INCREF(text);
         return text;
     }
+    if (PyObject_HasAttrString(text, "__html__")) {
+        ret = PyObject_CallMethod(text, "__html__", NULL);
+        args = PyTuple_New(1);
+        if (args == NULL) {
+            Py_DECREF(ret);
+            return NULL;
+        }
+        PyTuple_SET_ITEM(args, 0, ret);
+        ret = MarkupType.tp_new(&MarkupType, args, NULL);
+        Py_DECREF(args);
+        return ret;
+    }
     in = (PyUnicodeObject *) PyObject_Unicode(text);
     if (in == NULL) {
         return NULL;
@@ -191,6 +203,13 @@
     return escape(text, quotes);
 }
 
+static PyObject *
+Markup_html(PyObject *self)
+{
+    Py_INCREF(self);
+    return self;
+}
+
 PyDoc_STRVAR(join__doc__,
 "Return a `Markup` object which is the concatenation of the strings\n\
 in the given sequence, where this `Markup` object is the separator\n\
@@ -520,6 +539,7 @@
 } MarkupObject;
 
 static PyMethodDef Markup_methods[] = {
+    {"__html__", (PyCFunction) Markup_html, METH_NOARGS, NULL},
     {"escape", (PyCFunction) Markup_escape,
      METH_VARARGS|METH_CLASS|METH_KEYWORDS, escape__doc__},
     {"join", (PyCFunction)Markup_join, METH_VARARGS|METH_KEYWORDS, join__doc__},