A similar statement may be made regarding the diphthong ei and long e, that is to say, they were both formerly sounded like long a in fate.
'Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,
In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece.'
(Pope: 'Essay on Man.')
In the same essay Pope rhymes sphere with fair, showing that he pronounced it sphaire. Our hedge schoolmaster did the same thing in his song:—
Of all the maids on this terrestrial sphaire
Young Molly is the fairest of the fair.
'The plots are fruitless which my foe
Unjustly did conceive;
The pit he digg'd for me has proved