--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@
    are callable.
  * Instances of the `genshi.core.Attrs` class are now immutable (they are
    subclasses of `tuple` instead of `list`).
+ * `MarkupTemplate`s can now be instantiated from markup streams, in addition
+   to strings and file-like objects (ticket #69).
 
 
 Version 0.3.5

--- a/genshi/template/core.py
+++ b/genshi/template/core.py
@@ -170,10 +170,6 @@
     def __init__(self, source, basedir=None, filename=None, loader=None,
                  encoding=None):
         """Initialize a template from either a string or a file-like object."""
-        if isinstance(source, basestring):
-            self.source = StringIO(source)
-        else:
-            self.source = source
         self.basedir = basedir
         self.filename = filename
         if basedir and filename:
@@ -182,13 +178,17 @@
             self.filepath = filename
         self.loader = loader
 
+        if isinstance(source, basestring):
+            source = StringIO(source)
+        else:
+            source = source
+        self.stream = list(self._prepare(self._parse(source, encoding)))
         self.filters = [self._flatten, self._eval]
-        self.stream = list(self._prepare(self._parse(encoding)))
 
     def __repr__(self):
         return '<%s "%s">' % (self.__class__.__name__, self.filename)
 
-    def _parse(self, encoding):
+    def _parse(self, source, encoding):
         """Parse the template.
         
         The parsing stage parses the template and constructs a list of

--- a/genshi/template/markup.py
+++ b/genshi/template/markup.py
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@
         if loader:
             self.filters.append(self._include)
 
-    def _parse(self, encoding):
+    def _parse(self, source, encoding):
         """Parse the template from an XML document."""
         stream = [] # list of events of the "compiled" template
         dirmap = {} # temporary mapping of directives to elements
@@ -73,8 +73,11 @@
         fallback_stream = None
         include_href = None
 
-        for kind, data, pos in XMLParser(self.source, filename=self.filename,
-                                         encoding=encoding):
+        if not isinstance(source, Stream):
+            source = XMLParser(source, filename=self.filename,
+                               encoding=encoding)
+
+        for kind, data, pos in source:
 
             if kind is START_NS:
                 # Strip out the namespace declaration for template directives

--- a/genshi/template/tests/markup.py
+++ b/genshi/template/tests/markup.py
@@ -14,11 +14,13 @@
 import doctest
 import os
 import shutil
+from StringIO import StringIO
 import sys
 import tempfile
 import unittest
 
 from genshi.core import Markup
+from genshi.input import XML
 from genshi.template.core import BadDirectiveError, TemplateSyntaxError
 from genshi.template.loader import TemplateLoader
 from genshi.template.markup import MarkupTemplate
@@ -27,6 +29,16 @@
 class MarkupTemplateTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
     """Tests for markup template processing."""
 
+    def test_parse_fileobj(self):
+        fileobj = StringIO('<root> ${var} $var</root>')
+        tmpl = MarkupTemplate(fileobj)
+        self.assertEqual('<root> 42 42</root>', str(tmpl.generate(var=42)))
+
+    def test_parse_stream(self):
+        stream = XML('<root> ${var} $var</root>')
+        tmpl = MarkupTemplate(stream)
+        self.assertEqual('<root> 42 42</root>', str(tmpl.generate(var=42)))
+
     def test_interpolate_mixed3(self):
         tmpl = MarkupTemplate('<root> ${var} $var</root>')
         self.assertEqual('<root> 42 42</root>', str(tmpl.generate(var=42)))

--- a/genshi/template/text.py
+++ b/genshi/template/text.py
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@
                                r'(?:^[ \t]*(?<!\\)#((?:\w+|#).*)\n?)',
                                re.MULTILINE)
 
-    def _parse(self, encoding):
+    def _parse(self, source, encoding):
         """Parse the template from text input."""
         stream = [] # list of events of the "compiled" template
         dirmap = {} # temporary mapping of directives to elements
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@
         if not encoding:
             encoding = 'utf-8'
 
-        source = self.source.read().decode(encoding, 'replace')
+        source = source.read().decode(encoding, 'replace')
         offset = 0
         lineno = 1