--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -71,6 +71,12 @@
    the `<py:match>` directive.
  * Improve error reporting when accessing an attribute in a Python expression
    raises an `AttributeError` (ticket #191).
+ * The `Markup` class now supports mappings for right hand of the `%` (modulo)
+   operator in the same way the Python string classes do, except that the
+   substituted values are escape. Also, the special constructor which took
+   positional arguments that would be substituted was removed. Thus the
+   `Markup` class now supports the same arguments as that of its `unicode`
+   base class (ticket #211).
 
 
 Version 0.4.4

--- a/doc/upgrade.txt
+++ b/doc/upgrade.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+================
 Upgrading Genshi
 ================
 
@@ -7,19 +8,12 @@
 .. sectnum::
 
 
+------------------------------------
 Upgrading from Genshi 0.4.x to 0.5.x
 ------------------------------------
 
-Genshi 0.5 introduces a new, alternative syntax for text templates,
-which is more flexible and powerful compared to the old syntax. For
-backwards compatibility, this new syntax is not used by default,
-though it will be in a future version. It is recommended that you
-migrate to using this new syntax. To do so, simply rename any
-references in your code to ``TextTemplate`` to ``NewTextTemplate``. To
-explicitly use the old syntax, use ``OldTextTemplate`` instead, so
-that you can be sure you'll be using the same language when the
-default in Genshi is changed (at least until the old implementation is
-completely removed).
+Error Handling
+--------------
 
 The default error handling mode has been changed to "strict". This
 means that accessing variables not defined in the template data will
@@ -30,6 +24,9 @@
 warned that lenient error handling may be removed completely in a
 future release.
 
+Match Template Processing
+-------------------------
+
 There has also been a subtle change to how ``py:match`` templates are
 processed: in previous versions, all match templates would be applied
 to the content generated by the matching template, and only the
@@ -42,7 +39,39 @@
 have any effect on most applications, but you may want to check your
 use of match templates to make sure.
 
+Text Templates
+--------------
 
+Genshi 0.5 introduces a new, alternative syntax for text templates,
+which is more flexible and powerful compared to the old syntax. For
+backwards compatibility, this new syntax is not used by default,
+though it will be in a future version. It is recommended that you
+migrate to using this new syntax. To do so, simply rename any
+references in your code to ``TextTemplate`` to ``NewTextTemplate``. To
+explicitly use the old syntax, use ``OldTextTemplate`` instead, so
+that you can be sure you'll be using the same language when the
+default in Genshi is changed (at least until the old implementation is
+completely removed).
+
+``Markup`` Constructor
+----------------------
+
+The ``Markup`` class now longer has a specialized constructor. The old
+(undocumented) constructor provided a shorthand for doing positional
+substitutions. If you have code like this:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+  Markup('<b>%s</b>', name)
+
+You can simply replace it by the more explicit:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+  Markup('<b>%s</b>') % name
+
+
+------------------------------------
 Upgrading from Genshi 0.3.x to 0.4.x
 ------------------------------------
 
@@ -66,6 +95,7 @@
 information.
 
 
+---------------------
 Upgrading from Markup
 ---------------------
 

--- a/genshi/_speedups.c
+++ b/genshi/_speedups.c
@@ -144,46 +144,6 @@
     return ret;
 }
 
-static PyObject *
-Markup_new(PyTypeObject *type, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
-{
-    PyObject *self, *text, *tmp, *args2;
-    int nargs, i;
-
-    nargs = PyTuple_GET_SIZE(args);
-    if (nargs < 2) {
-        return PyUnicode_Type.tp_new(type, args, NULL);
-    }
-
-    text = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(args, 0);
-    args2 = PyTuple_New(nargs - 1);
-    if (args2 == NULL) {
-        return NULL;
-    }
-    for (i = 1; i < nargs; i++) {
-        tmp = escape(PyTuple_GET_ITEM(args, i), 1);
-        if (tmp == NULL) {
-            Py_DECREF(args2);
-            return NULL;
-        }
-        PyTuple_SET_ITEM(args2, i - 1, tmp);
-    }
-    tmp = PyUnicode_Format(text, args2);
-    Py_DECREF(args2);
-    if (tmp == NULL) {
-        return NULL;
-    }
-    args = PyTuple_New(1);
-    if (args == NULL) {
-        Py_DECREF(tmp);
-        return NULL;
-    }
-    PyTuple_SET_ITEM(args, 0, tmp);
-    self = PyUnicode_Type.tp_new(type, args, NULL);
-    Py_DECREF(args);
-    return self;
-}
-
 PyDoc_STRVAR(escape__doc__,
 "Create a Markup instance from a string and escape special characters\n\
 it may contain (<, >, & and \").\n\
@@ -325,9 +285,38 @@
 Markup_mod(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
 {
     PyObject *tmp, *tmp2, *ret, *args2;
-    int i, nargs;
+    int i, nargs = 0;
+    PyObject *kwds = NULL;
 
-    if (PyTuple_Check(args)) {
+    if (PyDict_Check(args)) {
+        kwds = args;
+    }
+    if (kwds && PyDict_Size(kwds)) {
+        PyObject *kwcopy, *key, *value;
+        Py_ssize_t pos = 0;
+
+        kwcopy = PyDict_Copy( kwds );
+        if (kwcopy == NULL) {
+            return NULL;
+        }
+        while (PyDict_Next(kwcopy, &pos, &key, &value)) {
+            tmp = escape(value, 1);
+            if (tmp == NULL) {
+                Py_DECREF(kwcopy);
+                return NULL;
+            }
+            if (PyDict_SetItem(kwcopy, key, tmp) < 0) {
+                Py_DECREF(tmp);
+                Py_DECREF(kwcopy);
+                return NULL;
+            }
+        }
+        tmp = PyUnicode_Format(self, kwcopy);
+        Py_DECREF(kwcopy);
+        if (tmp == NULL) {
+            return NULL;
+        }
+    } else if (PyTuple_Check(args)) {
         nargs = PyTuple_GET_SIZE(args);
         args2 = PyTuple_New(nargs);
         if (args2 == NULL) {
@@ -589,7 +578,7 @@
     
     0,          /*tp_init*/
     0,          /*tp_alloc  will be set to PyType_GenericAlloc in module init*/
-    Markup_new, /*tp_new*/
+    0,          /*tp_new*/
     0,          /*tp_free  Low-level free-memory routine */
     0,          /*tp_is_gc For PyObject_IS_GC */
     0,          /*tp_bases*/

--- a/genshi/core.py
+++ b/genshi/core.py
@@ -419,11 +419,6 @@
     """
     __slots__ = []
 
-    def __new__(cls, text='', *args):
-        if args:
-            text %= tuple(map(escape, args))
-        return unicode.__new__(cls, text)
-
     def __add__(self, other):
         return Markup(unicode(self) + unicode(escape(other)))
 
@@ -431,9 +426,13 @@
         return Markup(unicode(escape(other)) + unicode(self))
 
     def __mod__(self, args):
-        if not isinstance(args, (list, tuple)):
-            args = [args]
-        return Markup(unicode.__mod__(self, tuple(map(escape, args))))
+        if isinstance(args, dict):
+            args = dict(zip(args.keys(), map(escape, args.values())))
+        elif isinstance(args, (list, tuple)):
+            args = tuple(map(escape, args))
+        else:
+            args = escape(args)
+        return Markup(unicode.__mod__(self, args))
 
     def __mul__(self, num):
         return Markup(unicode(self) * num)

--- a/genshi/output.py
+++ b/genshi/output.py
@@ -244,7 +244,7 @@
                 if sysid:
                     buf.append(' "%s"')
                 buf.append('>\n')
-                yield Markup(u''.join(buf), *filter(None, data))
+                yield Markup(u''.join(buf)) % filter(None, data)
                 have_doctype = True
 
             elif kind is START_CDATA:
@@ -343,7 +343,7 @@
                 if sysid:
                     buf.append(' "%s"')
                 buf.append('>\n')
-                yield Markup(u''.join(buf), *filter(None, data))
+                yield Markup(u''.join(buf)) % filter(None, data)
                 have_doctype = True
 
             elif kind is START_CDATA:
@@ -446,7 +446,7 @@
                 if sysid:
                     buf.append(' "%s"')
                 buf.append('>\n')
-                yield Markup(u''.join(buf), *filter(None, data))
+                yield Markup(u''.join(buf)) % filter(None, data)
                 have_doctype = True
 
             elif kind is PI:

--- a/genshi/tests/core.py
+++ b/genshi/tests/core.py
@@ -62,6 +62,10 @@
 
 class MarkupTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
+    def test_new_with_encoding(self):
+        markup = Markup('Döner', encoding='utf-8')
+        self.assertEquals("<Markup u'D\\xf6ner'>", repr(markup))
+
     def test_repr(self):
         markup = Markup('foo')
         self.assertEquals("<Markup u'foo'>", repr(markup))
@@ -107,6 +111,16 @@
         assert type(markup) is Markup
         self.assertEquals('<b>&amp;</b> boo', markup)
 
+    def test_mod_mapping(self):
+        markup = Markup('<b>%(foo)s</b>') % {'foo': '&'}
+        assert type(markup) is Markup
+        self.assertEquals('<b>&amp;</b>', markup)
+
+    def test_mod_noescape(self):
+        markup = Markup('<b>%(amp)s</b>') % {'amp': Markup('&amp;')}
+        assert type(markup) is Markup
+        self.assertEquals('<b>&amp;</b>', markup)
+
     def test_mul(self):
         markup = Markup('<b>foo</b>') * 2
         assert type(markup) is Markup