A spectacle, not of reverent mourning, but of intolerable ignorance

George Bernard Shaw has had enough

Crowds line the streets to watch the funeral cortege of Queen Victoria (1819 - 1901). (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Between the date of her death—January 22nd, 1901—and her extravagant funeral a fortnight later, millions grieved as the body of Queen Victoria lay in state on the Isle of Wight. Her reign would remain the longest of any British mon…