[Cardinal numbers in FW]

Muddest Thick: "He was a great at dab at manual arith, sure enough, that's why he knew no boy better what his ten fingures were for. Anyhow he was always fond of cardinals. Always would he {be} reciting them by heart so as to know the tenners thumbs down, ace, deuce, tricks, quarts, quims and on the other hand, sexes, suppers, oglers, novels and dices."

in FW, the combinatorics of small cardinal numbers (especially one, two, three and four) seem to have profound hidden meanings for Joyce.

counting as mastery (miscounting as failure? shortfalls, excesses)
calculation
one splitting into two, and vice versa

i don't think we can see this anticipated in Ulysses:
U-Telemachus "Well, it's seven mornings a pint at twopence is seven twos is a shilling and twopence over and these three mornings a quart at fourpence is three quarts is a shilling. That's a shilling and one and two is two and two, sir."
U-Proteus "Five, six: the nacheinander."
U-Oxen "Five, seven, nine. Fine!"


1.272 "a runalittle, doalittle, preealittle, pouralittle, wipealittle, kicksalittle, severalittle, eatalittle, whinealittle, kenalittle, helfalittle, pelfalittle gnarlybird"

202.01 "twills and trills, sparefours and spoilfives, nordsihkes and sudsevers and ayes and neins to a litter"

113.06 "a man alones sine anyon anyons utharas has no rates to done a kik at with anyon anakars about tutus milking fores and the rereres on the outerrand asikin the tutus to be forrarder" (Ainu: shine, tu, re, ine, ashikne: one, two, three, four, five;two twos and three ree rees)


018.06                           may rede it on all fours. O'c'stle, n'wc'stle, tr'c'stle,
–018.06+    one, two, three (three castles on the Dublin coat-of-arms)

019.20         Axe on thwacks on thracks, axenwise. One by one place one
–019.20+    (one, two, three)
019.21    be three dittoh and one before. Two nursus one make a plaus-019.22    ible free and idim behind.


043.14    two or three or four from a window, and so on down to a few good

115.17    petual soutane suit with her one to see and awoh! who picks her
–115.17+    one, two, three, and away!


126.06    storehundred on this nightly quisquiquock of the twelve apos-
–126.06+    (three cycles of four questions)

134.07    the Grave; ace of arts, deuce of damimonds, trouble of clubs, fear
–134.07+    ace of hearts, two of diamonds, three of clubs, four of spades 

271.F03         2 Skip one, flop fore, jennies in the cabbage store.
–271.F03+    nursery rhyme One, Two, Three, Four, Mary's at the Kitchen Door

272.20    chamber. Of errings. Whoan, tug, trace,
–272.20+    one, two, three

282.29    om lumerous ways, caiuscounting in the
–282.29+    William Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor: (Dr. Caius counting) 'Vat be all you, one, two, tree, four, come for?' (II.3.20) and 'If there be one or two, I shall make-a the turd' (III.3.208)


285.20    volts viisi volts nelja volts kolme volts kaksi
–285.20+    Finnish neljä: four
–285.20+    Finnish kolme: three


308.07         Tri
–308.07+    Irish trí: three
308.08         Car
–308.08+    Irish ceathar: four

 327.08    Newschool, two titty too at win winnie won, tramity trimming and
–327.08+    three
–327.08+    Rhaeto-Romanic trim: three-year old ox
327.09    funnity fare, with a grit as hard as the trent of the thimes but a
–327.09+    four

332.03    made three (for fie!) and if hec dont love alpy then lad you
–332.03+    four five

352.28 "jittinju triggity shittery pet, he shouts his thump and feeh fauh foul finngures up the heighohs of their ahs!"
Bulgarian: tri, chetiri, pet: three, four, five

360.29    showed her pear too, onto three and away. Whet the bee as to
–360.29+    one, two, three and away!

 361.01    leqwind play peeptomine up all our colombinations! Wins
–361.01+    once one is nought, twice two is nil, thrice three makes nine, four's four

 384.33    whips for one was two and two was lips for one was three, and

396.26    a duther one lelly two dather three lilly four dother. And it was

 403.04         Pedwar pemp foify tray (it must be) twelve.
–403.04+    Welsh pedwar: four [.02]
–403.04+    fifty three
–403.04+    Italian tre: three


499.16        — God serf yous kingly, adipose rex! I had four in the morn-–499.16+    Sphinx's riddle: 'What has four legs in the morning, two legs at midday, and three legs in the evening'; answer: 'man'
499.17    ing and a couple of the lunch and three later on,

533.15    I introduced her (Frankfurters, numborines, why drive fear?) to
–533.15+    German eins, zwei, drei, vier: one, two, three, four
   
546.25        — What is your numb? Bun!
–546.25+    (four telephone operators (*X*))
546.27        — Have you put in all your sparepennies? I'm listening. Sree!
–546.27+    three
546.28        — Keep clear of propennies! Fore!
–546.28+    four



558.16    act one, section two, schedule three, clause four of the fifth of

581.23    ass cloudious! And then and too the trivials! And their bivouac!
–581.23+    tri-, bi-, mono-: three-, two-, one-

596.16    of the two or three forefivest fellows a bloke could in holiday
–596.16+    four fifths (i.e. four provinces; Irish cúige: province is derived from Irish cúig: five, there once being five provinces in Ireland where now there are four)

608.34    ing. Three. Into the wikeawades warld from sleep we are passing.
–608.34+    wide awake
–608.34+    world
608.35    Four. Come, hours, be ours!